Three Girls
by thecatclouder
Summary: The 68th Hunger Games from the point of view of the girls from Districts 1, 3 and 8. Who will win? Review to vote. The concept belongs to Suzanne Collins. Rated T for it is the Hunger Games.
1. The Reapings

**Disclaimer: The Hunger Games concept and story belongs to Suzanne Collins. She owns all the characters except those I create. **

**The Reapings**

**Krystal's POV**

"Do I look good?" I asked my sister Lacey, who just frowned. She had this look on her face that only she could somehow muster: disappointment, anger, fear and hope mixed together into one expression. I had no word for it, and I doubted she did either. "What's up?"

"I think you know what is up," Lacey said. I looked at her again. "Don't volunteer. It's not worth it. Please."

"Lacey, you are saying this like we are living in one of those poor districts. I'll be back in two and a half weeks; three weeks tops," I reassured her.

"You'll come back a murderer," Lacey hissed.

"Would you rather I don't come back at all?"

"I'd rather you not go," Lacey squeaked. Her voice always got very squeaky when she got angry. I glared at her. Lacey did not really belong in District 1. She complained about everything, and her moral compass pointed directly north. Mine probably pointed west; I could work out by process of elimination what north was, but did not really have any intention of going in that direction.

"What, would you rather go instead? I fought long and hard to get the honour of volunteering this year. If I don't, whoever is chosen will be forced to go into the games."

"Then I'd just get myself killed off in the bloodbath," Lacey said defiantly, the look in her eyes saying that she was not joking. I pushed the lamp off the table in frustration and it clattered down onto the ground. Lacey looked at it in shock.

"I'm going!" I yelled at her.

"It's your funeral," Lacey yelled, then immediately clasped her hands over her mouth. "I'm sorry. Just don't go."

"Do I look good?" I asked again, taking a few deep breaths to calm myself and twirling around in the silvery dress. Flat shoes, not heels. I had been practicing in heels as all the girls seemed to have to wear them in the Capitol during their interviews. It was like walking around on stilts, except only half of your foot was on the stilt so you were completely off balance.

"Yeah," Lacey said, looking down defeated. I felt sort of guilty leaving her like that. She would have time to say goodbye after I'd volunteered, but that time would be very limited. There were tears in her eyes when she asked, "Do you have a token?"

I looked at her. I'd completely forgotten that tributes were allowed a token to remember their districts by. I never knew why it was relevant because I'd be back home within weeks… well, maybe not home, but even better: a brand new house in Victor's Village.

"Take this," she said, holding out an elegantly woven bracelet and turning it over. I read the inscription: _never forget who you are. _I had to ask.

"Do you even want me to come back at all?" I asked.

"Without blood on your hands," Lacey said. There was going to be no winning this argument with her, but I slipped the bracelet over my wrist anyway.

"Don't worry, I'm sure there will be some very bloodthirsty tribute in the pack that takes everybody else out, then I can take him out and it would be morally right," I said, my attempt to reassure her. It did not work.

"Really Krystal?" Lacey gasped. "That is what prisons are for."

"When have you ever seen a prison?" I wondered angrily.

"I haven't. They should have them rather than public executions," Lacey said.

I forced myself to calm down again. Emotions, whether good or bad, were weaknesses. Love was another one. But as that particular weakness was not going to come with me to the games, all I had to do was convince Lacey and everything would be as it should.

It was obvious why Lacey failed out of training. If you ignored the fact that when she was little she cried whenever she got muddy, a habit she had long grown out of, she froze up as soon as she saw the weapons. Lacey could run, and she still ran with me sometimes, but refused to throw knives even at a target. She claimed that it would be far too easy to accidentally do it to a person. I'd dismissed that there was no possible way to accidentally kill somebody. There would have to be intent.

"Look, I've been training all my life for this. I deserve tons of money and a new house for all that I had to endure. You would be able to come live with me; you wouldn't have to work a single day of your life," I tried a different tactic. If I'd been trying to reason with Lacey's moral centre, I had obviously used the wrong one.

Lacey opened her mouth to say something else but was interrupted by Mother calling from downstairs. "Get down here and eat something. The reaping starts in an hour and we don't want to be late!"

"Look, we are going to get an upgrade from this," I whispered to Lacey, motioning at the house in general that was relatively large and had two floors. "And most of those poorer districts don't even have this. They have to live in one room. Wouldn't a week of luxury then a quick demise be better than dying in youth in some sort of factory accident or mine explosion?"

"No," Lacey said pointedly.

"What took you so long?" Father asked when I sat down. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, I'm ready," I repeated, something I'd told myself a dozen times since I had woken up this morning. I picked up one of the knives off the counter. Just a simple kitchen knife, nothing like I had trained with. I preferred machetes, almost like knives but longer and sharper. I turned it over in my hand then tossed it into the target above the kitchen counter. It hit dead in the centre and Mother smiled at me.

"Good. Okay, who do you want to come to your big house warming party? I'm already inviting Cashmere and Gloss's parents. They'll finally see that our family is full of Victors as well," Father said.

Gloss and Cashmere were the brother and sister that had won the 63rd and 64th Hunger Games respectively, and were the most recent Victors from District 1. Their parents and mine had been rivals for as long as I can remember. If I thought about it, I was their only hope. There was no way Lacey would ever win the Hunger Games. She had made it clear enough.

I glared at him as well. "I have every intention to come back, but I do not want you to manipulate me like that."

I clenched my fists like I usually did when I was mad, my nails digging into my palms.

"Okay, overview: what angle are you going to play in the interviews?" Father checked.

"Cocky, arrogant, sort of flirty," I told him.

"Make sure that they know you are going to win," Father told me. "Tactics at the Cornocopia?"

"Go for the weapons. Team up with District 2 and 4," I parroted. Personally I thought that the other Career districts were insufferable, but all alliances formed would be temporary anyway. "And… um… don't get killed."

"Good girl," Father said. I scoffed some food and then it was time to head for the square. The boys' trials were more complicated than those for the girls as there were so many more boys that tried to volunteer. There had only been me and four other girls competing for the honour of volunteering this year. We were separated into our age groups. There was not nearly as much tension as there apparently was in the other districts. Those that were going to the Capitol already knew it.

The stupid escort mounted the stage. I remembered her from last few years; her name was Hatty. "Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour!" Then there was a long and boring speech which was always repeated every year. I never paid much attention to it at all.

If I understood correctly, the people from the Capitol were the alien overlords with their stupid accents and crazy wigs who enslaved humanity and forced them diminished human populous to live in 13 districts. Then one was destroyed and 12 remained. Every year a boy and a girl from each district had to compete in the Hunger Games, the Victors of which pleased the alien overlords enough to guarantee a life of fame and fortune.

"Ladies first," the escort trilled as I finally paid attention again. Good job too, or I might have missed my opportunity to volunteer. Hatty reached into the bowl and drew out a single name. "Diamond Blakely!"

A girl from the fifteen year old section started mounting the steps close to where my sister was standing. Lacey looked at me pleadingly and shook her head, but I had already started moving.

"Any volunteers?" Hatty asked the crowd.

"I volunteer," I said, making my up the steps and over to the microphone. "Krystal Alrich."

I gave the crowd my best cocky smile, then waved slowly and repeatedly. The Capitol, as usual, would start analysing the actions of the tributes from this point on. I'd watched enough games and reruns to know that for a fact.

"Now for the boys," Hatty continued, grasping at another piece of paper. I did not pay much attention to the name called, but perked up when a tall muscular boy called Garnet volunteered. I smirked at him, and grasped his hand tight when we were forced to shake hands. Having no idea what the rest of the competition would be like, being the first district reaped and all, I decided that comparatively everything would be just fine.

The odds were certainly going to be in my favour.

**Dina's POV**

Today was the annual day off. It was not a good day. At least two families would be sobbing uncontrollably in their houses, their children sent to impending doom. For as long as I have been watching the Hunger Games I have not seen anybody from District 3 win. Sandwiched between the Career districts, even those with high scores of around 6 were hardly noticed. Sponsors don't flock at their doors.

And the turning point: the interviews with the families. Nobody from District 3 had got to the final eight in a decade. In the last five years there have been two Victors from District 1, then handsome Finnick Odair from 4, the girl from 6, and last year the boy from 2 won. Nobody from District 3.

The odds, for whoever is picked, will certainly not be in their favour.

District 3 is the technology district. Schools teach children to be intelligent, but I have never been much good at that. I always belonged to one of the richer families so there was no need, never having to take out tesserae. I'm sixteen now. I had 15 entries in the bowl, which was lower than just about anyone that I knew.

"You'll be fine," I assured myself. It was more my brother that I was worried about. He was a technological wiz, which meant that he might be able to use his intelligence to his advantage if he went in… I refused to even think about it. Being eighteen it was his final year. If he got through this year he would be totally safe. Another two years and I would also be. Then I could stop worrying about immediate family.

But today worry was like the constant pit in my throat. I started pacing forwards and backwards, knowing that I could have a lie in but far too nervous to. What if I was chosen? What would I do?

There was a knock on the door. It was only my brother, Mark.

"Are you okay in there, Dina?" he asked.

I shivered but said, "Yes."

"Want to go for a walk before we have to attend the reaping?" he asked. I was far too restless to have any chance of getting back to sleep so I said "yes" to that as well. Grabbing my coat and shoes, I made my way outside with Mark.

As usual the streets were filled with smog. If I had not been living on the same street my whole life it probably would have made me cough up. As District 3s industry was mainly sedentary, there was not a good level of medical care that we were subject to. It was best not to have any allergies to the smog, not to mention injuries or shocks on the job.

"You know, sometimes I wish we could live in District 11, the agriculture district. It must be so peaceful there," I knew that I was making myself sound like an idiot. With Peacekeepers, nothing was ever really peaceful, and I'd heard the security in District 11 was tougher than most.

"Or District 7," my brother said, playing along with me as usual. "They have forests there."

District 7: forestry.

"It would be nice to actually see trees for a change," I said. There were no trees in District 3; it had all been built up.

"We should probably get going soon. Our reaping is quite early," Mark said after we had just sat around wordlessly for what felt like minutes but probably was just over an hour. The reapings were done in District order, and we were one of the first districts.

I got changed into something for 'special occasions'. My father smiled a reassuring smile at me. The chance of me being picked was so improbably that I had almost convinced myself that it was not going to happen. While I was not a technological genius, probability just came easily to me.

There were thousands of slips of paper. I had my name on exactly 15 of them. I could do some advanced calculations with the amount of children that there actually were, to predict the possibility for each of them being picked, but doing that often only made me feel worse. What if it was one of my friends?

So I wore the dress, completely blue with puffy sleeves. We actually had enough money to occasionally buy new clothes. We still had to patch things up like most people did, but not nearly as much as the true poor people.

I waited in line at the register to show that I was present, then waited in the area that was cordoned off for the 16 year old girls. I waved nervously at Mark in the eighteen year old section. I knew, if he had the ability, if I went he would volunteer for me. But as guys could only volunteer for other guys, and girls only for other girls, he couldn't. I told him never to volunteer simply to keep me safe. My parents could not lost two children in the same year.

The escort was late, which surprised me. Escorts were big on manners, and showing up late was very rude. I waited through the speech, my stomach getting more and more clenched. I gasped and continued gasping, willing myself not to have a nervous breakdown. I spotted my father watching and forced myself to get a hold of myself.

"Dina Larson!" the escort called, and staying calm was completely forgotten. That was my name. I panicked and the Peacekeepers forced me forwards. And then it was like I felt nothing, and I actually managed to hold my head up high enough to not look like a total snivelling wimp. I stood on the stage wordlessly, playing with my nails like I always did when I was sad or nervous despite simply feeling hollow.

I was going to my doom. There were no two ways around it.

Then the boy's name was drawn. I only had time to beg _not Mark, not Mark, not Mark, _before the escort called out the name. "Bert Long."

The crowd gasped as a twelve year old made his way forwards. He was crying and did not even try to disguise it. It was so cruel, forcing twelve year olds to play this sadistic game. No twelve year olds had ever won.

This had just got worse. I would not be coming back. I did not even really want to try if my success meant the death of a twelve year old, one that my brother used to babysit when they were both younger. I could see the confliction on Mark's face. He almost wanted to volunteer to safe Bert, but that would mean that he would face off against his sister.

The time passed. I felt sick with myself for being glad that he did not volunteer. And then we were whisked away. My feet dragged and I seemed to grow heavier with each step. I was not going to survive, but this being the Hunger Games probably meant that my death would be long and drawn out.

I already missed home, and I had not yet left. Forget leaving to any of the other Districts, forget District 11's fields and District 7's forests, I just wanted to remain home in District 3.

**Suffra's POV**

I was up early like I had always been, simply running. Running laps around the house, going faster and faster until I forgot everything that had been bothering me. Today was the day of the reaping. My identical twin sister Iva sat inside, drawing a picture. I ran instead. We both needed to do something to occupy our minds, wait for District 8's turn in this awful event.

The only good thing that ever came from a reaping was that we did not have to go to school or to our job. Usually days were long. School started early and finished mid-afternoon. Work began late afternoon and finished late in the evening. Then we usually went to bed ready to get up early for the following day.

Today, I ran instead. I was fast. Very fast. I could just keep on running, but was unsure exactly how far I could get. I wasn't going to try. There was nowhere to run in District 8. It was too built up to really appreciate any scenery at all. There was probably scenery out there somewhere, beyond the tall and domineering fence. But it might as well not be there at all. There was no way to cross the fence.

So there I was, running around the house. The house was small, and ill maintained. We did not have much time to maintain it. I probably should not be running off the small amount of food I was able to get, but I found that I could not stop. I needed to do something that was not sit around all day.

Of course I regretted it when I finally sat down an hour later and there were pangs in my stomach.

"Is there anything for breakfast?" I asked hopefully, not really expecting anything.

"We are saving the food for when we all get back from the reaping safely," Iva said. I nodded. That had worked every year in the past. I sat down, twirling my hair in my fingers. We didn't have anything nice or formal to wear, so I just picked out my least messy pair of clothes and the pair of shoes with only one hole in. Iva borrowed one of my tops and did the same. Our parents put on pairs of clothes that weren't work clothes then we left.

The waiting was horrible. Not to know whether my sister or I would be picked. If she was picked, I knew that I would volunteer. There was no way that I would allow my twin sister to go to the Hunger Games if I could have prevented it; I would never be able to live with myself.

I felt a twinge deep inside me when I thought about it. It was as if thinking about it might actually make it come true, and I did not want that at all. The waiting was still horrible. The square filled up more, and I imagined that we lived in one of the Career districts where there was practically no risk even if you were chosen. I yearned more than anything to be from one of those districts. They were richer too. There was no risk of starvation, which occurred frequently in my district especially in winter.

Baba, the escort whose name I really thought sounded like that of a sheep, got up to the stage and talked. Did she not know that nobody in the crowd was listening? They were all just wishing for the safety of themselves and those that they cared about.

Baba picked out the boy's name first. "Stitch Margo!"

A sixteen year old boy that I did not recognize mounted the steps. Then it was the girls' turn.

"Iva Hadley!"

_Okay, I guess I am volunteering then, _I thought surprisingly calmly. Sometimes when something incredibly bad happened, I somehow stayed deathly calm. That had happened before. Before Iva could even mount the steps I was in front of her as if in a daze.

"I am Suffra Hadley and I am volunteering," I said.


	2. Saying Goodbye

**Saying Goodbye**

**Krystal's POV**

This was meant to be the time to say goodbye, which I did not think was really applicable to me. So I just twiddled my fingers, waiting to see whether anybody would even come. Mother and Father believed in me, so they probably thought that it was not necessary. I was not really shocked when the door opened and Lacey stood there, alone.

"It's too late for me to change my mind, you know," I told her before she could speak, and she sat down next to me. The room was magnificent, but I knew that it was nothing compared to what the Capitol was going to be.

"I know," Lacey said.

"I need to know: are you hoping for me to come back?" I had to ask, again. I never got a clear answer on that one. My sister was easy to read; maybe I was not getting a clear answer because I did not want to see one.

"I don't want you to kill people," Lacey said not for the first time, giving me a look to tell me to shut up before I was even intending to speak. "Yeah you have trained with weapons and all of that crap, but I don't really want to know that my sister is capable of killing people."

"Lacey, the game is kill or be killed," I told her.

"I want you to get back," Lacey said after a long pause. "Don't be cocky. You get training before you go in. You've already got a lot of training. Do things that you don't know, not what you are good at. Don't be cocky."

"Having complete faith in my own abilities is not being cocky," I said, pulling my sister in for a hug. I did not want to have a fight with her before going off to the Hunger Games, after all. I was still confident, but there were small tendrils of doubt there, some of which my sister was actually causing.

"That is the very definition of the word cocky," Lacey said, but then remained silent. Her classic District 1 blonde hair splayed across my chest as she leant on me and started crying. "I'm sorry. Just… I'm sorry. I love you, okay."

"I know," I said. "I love you too."

The Peacekeepers came in and had to drag Lacey away, as she could not seem to get up by herself. Her tears at the end had shocked me; what did she really think of me? I blinked, trying to get the bleariness out. Suddenly this all seemed just a little bit too real.

_That's just Lacey getting into your head, _I told myself. Lacey did that; she told people things in such a way that they thought about what she said long after she had left.

Mother and Father came next. I blinked again. I hadn't been expecting them. I'd probably be back before they even miss me. They'd be seeing me on TV every day after all. _I better not screw up then, _I thought for some reason. If I screwed up, I'd have bigger problems than what my parents thought.

"Nice performance," Mother said. I had not even done much; just mount the stage without tripping over my own feet and not look at all intimidated when Garnet tried to make me squirm. Personally, I thought he looked like a bit of an idiot, intolerable without any brains or other incentives to tolerate him. Too bad that I had to be in an alliance with him…

"Thanks," I said. I stroked the velvet sofa beneath me as I looked at them. There was a silence, which I tried to break. "Okay, so bets for this year: desert? Tundra? Forest? Forest has been used quite a lot recently, since that year District 6 won and most of the tributes dies of cold."

"You have to take this seriously," Father reminded me. I was taking it seriously. I was just trying to relieve the tension in this room. If only I had another knife to toss at a target when anybody questioned my inability to do something. As soon as I got to the Capitol I should start carrying one again.

"I am," I said. There was another pause. "I guess you'll see me on the chariot in the opening ceremony. I'll be the one at the front." Obviously.

"I'm sure you'll look dazzling," was all Mother said. Then they left. I waited for more people to arrive, but none did. I didn't really have any friends. Boys I always saw as potential enemies and girls did not trust me.

I didn't trust them either, so I guess it was only fair.

**Dina's POV**

My father and Mark came in first. I started sobbing as soon as I saw them.

"I'm so sorry," I sobbed, even though I was not sure what I was sorry for. Sorry that I would no longer be there. Sorry that I would be forced to be fight to the death with Bert, who was only twelve. None of this seemed fair at all.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do the right thing," Mark reassured me. At least he was honest. He didn't say that it was going to be alright; it clearly wasn't. He didn't say that I was going to win. I was so glad about that. If he had lied to me I probably would have started crying again, then I realized that I had not really stopped. Tears were still streaming out of my eyes. I just hoped it was going to be quick.

"At least that is one thing I'd be able to do," I said, sounding spiteful as well as sad. _Good Dina, use that anger. Anger makes people strong… no it doesn't. I don't want to win if it means killing people. _The games had not yet begun and I was already arguing with myself. I couldn't help myself when I added, "I hope."

"I'm sorry Dina," Mark said. He had tears in his eyes as well, but with what seemed like sheer force of will he did not let them fall. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a single cog, attached with a string.

"My token?" I asked, understanding. I turned it over in my hands, then slipped it over my head. It fitted perfectly as a necklace, falling just onto my heart. I pledged not to remove it, even with their super-eccentric Capitol fashions during their ceremonies. I wanted to keep it with me, always. Most likely for the rest of my life. "Thank you."

"Just remember home when you go," Mark said, definitely crying now as well. Dad still remained silent, just looking at me like he had lost the ability to speak.

"I'm sorry," I said again, and then it was time for them to go. I kept on crying when my best friend, Mari, came in.

"Sorry I didn't see you before the reaping," she started out with saying. "It's my sister's first year, you know. I had to stay with her to reassure her. I'm so sorry this is happening to you."

Mari talked so fast that the words almost seemed to flow together.

"I am too," I said. I couldn't stop myself crying and Mari held me. Mari was a good friend and I had always been able to count on her. I'd helped her feed her family and she'd helped me when my mother had been executed for running away with another man. That time still brought tears to my eyes if I thought about it.

"I've got something for you," Mari said. She obviously saw the cog, prominently displayed over my heart, which Mark had given to me. She held out a small loaf of bread, smiling. It had obviously cost her a lot to buy it, as it was still warm. Her family did not have money. "Okay, I know that you will have everything you desire on the way to the Capitol, but I got you this to remind you of home."

I ripped the loaf in half, giving half of it back to her. "Let's share, now."

Mari looked uneasily at the plush couch, then began tucking in. We had not finished eating when the Peacekeepers came again and she stuffed the rest of her half into her pocket again. I held mine in my hand, watching as it too became soaked in tears.

And that was it. I did not have a boyfriend or anything like that, and going into the Hunger Games I did not predict my ability to get one. All the people that would miss me when I go. I sobbed even harder.

"Bye," I said to the world, then started screaming in defeat.

**Suffra's POV**

"It will be fine," I assured Iva, who had completely fallen apart in front of me. Only part of me thought that it was ironic that I was the one going to my doom, reassuring her. But that was a small part. I was only here because in the truest sense I was a coward. I would not be able to bear my twin sister going into the games either. So I decided to go in her place. "Look, I'm fast and I can run. There is some chance."

Mum and Dad held Iva, but I motioned for them to let go and let my sister sit right next to me. I'd chosen a small armchair so the fit was tight, but I was so glad about it. I would be so close to my sister for the final time that I would see her.

"This should be me!" Iva sobbed. "You should not be here."

"It was my choice," I told her with as much force as I could. "It was my choice. Please don't feel bad."

"If it was you I would have done the same," she said. I felt a painful twinge run through me. I felt so sorry for her. I wished more than anything that neither of us had to be chosen, but that would have been too much to hope for. I had jinxed it, thinking those things just before the reaping.

"Iva, I will do _anything _for you, okay," I said. "Don't feel guilty. I care about you so much." Then I turned to my parents. "Look, I don't care how you do it. If the worst happens, take care of Iva, okay."

"Everything will be fine," Dad said, looking us both in the eyes. He had that 'I'm your father, do as I say' look to him. "Suffra will come back, and Iva you will be fine."

"Promise you'll be back," Iva begged. I did not tell her that roughly every kid in Panem in this position would do exactly the same, but I nodded.

Mum nodded at me and slipped off her wedding ring and handed it to me. "Give it back to me when you return, okay."

This gesture made Iva actually stop crying. Mum's complete assurance that I was coming back did that to her. Then again, I was going to come back either way. Whether I was alive or in a body bag was a completely different matter.

Another minute passed, and they were forced to leave. Then I was completely alone again.


	3. The Train

**I see that there are people reading this story. Please review; and vote on your favourite character!**

**The Train**

**Krystal's POV**

There were cameras at the train station. _Big surprise, _I thought sarcastically. I repeated my snarky smirk for the cameras, and waved at them again. I portrayed my image naturally: cocky, yet loving the Capitol public. Garnet just glared. For somebody his size that was probably a good tactic. I glanced into his eyes, searching for intelligence I assumed he was lacking, but did not appear to find anything of much interest. I loved being right.

The train was luxurious. Being from the luxury district, and a relatively rich family in it, I knew what luxury was like. This was different though. Somehow this seemed even more luxurious. Hatty smiled and led us to a carriage with a gigantic television. She always had so much energy, probably from being from the best district. We had not had a victor in four years, so she might be beginning to get impatient. Her promotion had been three years ago, the year of the 65th Hunger Games. If I cared, I would wonder whether she was annoyed with that.

"Skills," Garnet immediately started trying to interrogate me. I gave him another arrogant smirk.

"Wait and see," I smirked. "What about you? Do you have the brain-cell capacity to speak in more than one word? Seriously, I don't know you. _Do you _have that capacity?"

_Oh yeah right, allies, _I reminded myself. 

"Of course I do," Garnet hissed threateningly. I heard a feminine laugh and turned around. Our mentors were standing behind us.

"I'm so glad that you two are getting along," Delilah said sarcastically. She'd won the 58th Hunger Games ten years ago when she was sixteen. Since then she had cut her long platinum blonde hair short, which made her cheekbones even more prominent. There was something about her eyes. Sometimes her blue eyes just looked hollow.

Then there was Gloss. He was the other one who had been chosen to mentor this year, and I blinked at him seductively. By District 1 standards I was not really that pretty, with a heart-shaped face and dark hair. That did not stop me trying.

"Hey Gloss," I said, treating him like he was an old friend.

"I'm going to be mentoring you, Krystal," Delilah said. I glanced at Gloss again and he nodded. I guess that was District 1 politics. My father was trying to outdo his father, so he was not going to help him. What a shame.

"Good for you," I said. "Have you ever mentored a victor before?"

Delilah met my eyes. "I mentored the year Gloss won."

Gloss smirked at this, and I understood. Delilah had not mentored a Victor; she'd obviously been in charge of the girl that year. If I remembered correctly, that girl had been tortured to death by the boy from 2. District 2 really was nothing but trouble. _Allies, _I corrected myself. _Temporary _allies.

"Yeah, congratulations," I said mockingly, not exactly big on sympathy at the moment. Then I relented, remembering that Delilah was to be my mentor and it was not going to be doing me any favours by pissing my mentor off. Then again, apologies made people look weak. Instead I just remained silent.

Garnet smiled at me. He knew that as well as I did, and would probably try and play for favouritism. There was some chance he already had it, but as I probably would take him out sooner or later – something the Capitol would love but I would never live down when I returned to District 1, so maybe that wasn't the best idea – it did not matter. Either way, as soon as he died his sponsors would be all mine.

Gloss took Garnet into another room, and Delilah and I waited in silence. I could feel her glaring into the back of my head, so I just spoke without looking at her.

"Would the reapings be done by now?" I asked, and it took Delilah only a second to respond.

"Yes, they probably would just about have finished District 12," she said. She sat down next to me, judging me carefully. "Let's see what you think."

I flicked on the television and they had just started the broadcast. Lucky me. I saw Diamond get called, and me coolly volunteer. I saw myself stop to look at Lacey for just a second, which was the only sign of weakness that I had displayed. Other than that, I was cocky and confident. Garnet would probably draw in the crowd, but I'd held my own like I'd expected.

There was some commentary then it was District 2's turn. The boy, Katran, was strong and dark haired. The girl, Ray, also had dark hair, but did not look very feminine. That would not win her sponsors. District 3 was weak, with a 12 year old boy and a wimpy girl trying hard to look strong. District 4s tributes, Anemone and Spear (seriously, his name was Spear), looked round about average for that district. There was nothing special about the other tributes until I saw the boy from seven, muscular from years of logging. The girl from 8 volunteered to save an identical girl, so they were obviously twins. I did not think much of it after that. District 10 had a thirteen year old girl, and District 11's male tribute looked the same age. District 12 was the usual snivelling mess.

This was going to be easier than I had thought. In the pack I probably would be able to hunt down most of the tributes within a week. Then I would kill the pack and go home perfectly fine. That was the theory behind it anyway.

Like many of my theories, it was a good one.

**Dina's POV**

When I saw the other tributes on the big screen I knew that I had absolutely no chance. The girl from 1 was scary. The boy from 1 was scary. The girl from 2 was scary. The boy from 2 was scary. And that was only the first two districts that I had watched.

I did not look nearly as strong as I'd thought I would. I looked weak to anybody that was looking, and that made me cry again. District 3 would seem like a weak district to anybody watching. The boy from 4 was scary. The girl from 4 was scary.

There was something in the eyes of the boy from 5. District 5: the power district. He might actually be smart. He would be one to look out for. The boy from 6 was still bigger than me, and therefore scary. The boy from 7 was scary. The girl from 8 was a volunteer, volunteering to save her twin sister. That was noble of her, and I saw her as a possible alliance. If I survived the first day, that was. The chances of that, seeing my adversaries, was incredibly low.

I turned off the television. I did not want to see anymore. Beetee was with Bert, which left me with Nuts – Wiress. She was probably not going to be much help so I left her to be in my own room. I cried even more then. I had not been able to restrain my tears by the station; everybody would be able to see that I had been crying.

I was doomed. The day had been endless and my thoughts just kept getting darker and darker. Without even looking at the food carriage, I fell into a fitful sleep. I was in a hall full of mirrors. Each version of myself I could see was being killed in a different way. Some were lucky: throat cut during the bloodbath, snapped neck and dying instantly. In others, the torture dragged on and on. Most of those were things I had seen in previous games, but my subconscious had changed into my face.

Forcing myself awake, I found that it was two in the morning. That was no good. We had not even arrived in the Capitol yet. My stomach panged and I found that I was hungry. I made my way into the dining car. The Avoxes had not yet cleared the food away, probably by Beetee's instruction. I ate as much as I could until I felt sick, then headed back into my room again.

The food was rich. Much richer than I'd ever eaten. I barely made it to the bathroom before I threw up into the toilet. That'd just made me feel worse.

I stayed awake for hours until we arrived. It was about 10 a.m. The opening ceremonies would commence this afternoon. I stayed in my room even when the Capitol came to view, but could not resist looking out of the window. The Capitol was magnificent. There wasn't much of a crowd cheering for the arrivals from District 3. That reduced my odds even further. They already knew.

Nobody from District 3 was going to be making it home again this year. The news just kept getting worse and worse.

**Suffra's POV**

"It will be alright," I told my reflection. There could be exactly two things that I was doing: I could be trying to convince myself or I could be trying to convince Iva. I did not look completely identical to Iva anymore though. It was not yet time for dinner, so I had taken a shower. I had never felt so clean, and then I had dressed in fine clothes that cost more than our house. All in all, I did not resemble myself much.

Okay, I still had the same grey eyes. My hair was blonde, as usual, but had been straightened by one of those Capitol technological blow dryers instead of hanging in a complete mess almost matted. My face shape was obviously the same, but it looked different because of the way the hair framed it. I did not look quite as skinny; like there was some meat on my bones. Just a little bit. Perhaps even fashionable.

"Dinner!" Baba called, and I was incredibly shocked with what I saw. There was more food in the one dining car than I had ever seen before in my life. I didn't wait for Stitch or the mentors to arrive, only pausing long enough to grab a fork, and tucked into the nearest dish. It tasted so delicious. I quickly gave up on the fork, dropping it down onto the ground and stuffing food into my mouth. Baba gagged in response to that but I did not care.

"Hungry much?" Stitch asked, sitting down next to me. I had gathered myself a 'nest' of food, so I could reach about twenty different dishes without even having to get up.

"Yes," I tried, which sounded all muffled. I swallowed then tried again. "Yes. I haven't seen this much food in my life."

"You aren't the only one," Stitch said. He sounded preoccupied, which was understandable. He was probably being more sensible, not letting food overtake his desire to stay alive or accepting his impending doom. I looked into his eyes. He was still fighting.

"Who are you trying to get back for?" I asked.

"What?" Stitch asked. This time I was the one who interrupted him in the middle of a mouthful.

"The arena changes people," I said. "They are never the same again. If I had nobody to get back for, I would probably just give up and find the quickest possible route out. The odds are against me anyway. But I am fighting. I've got a plan" – so far, a lie, but I was intending to come up with a plan – "and I will try my best to get back."

"My mother needs me. Then there are my five younger brothers and sisters," Stitch said simply and did not elaborate. His mother certainly did breed. It was hard enough to feed a family of four with all of us having jobs. I'm not sure how he could have managed it.

Of course, if Stitch won, he would never have to worry about it again.

"I can't leave my twin sister," I said.

"You volunteered for her," Stitch checked.

"Yes," I confirmed. "She needs me."

Just then my plan started forming. If I humanized myself enough to the other tributes, maybe they would have trouble killing me. Then I would do what I always did: I would run. I was fast. Perhaps I could even grab something good at the Cornocopia before dashing off to avoid being taking out at the bloodbath.

"Let's see the competition," I announced a moment later, turning the television on. Every year big screens were set up in the square because the Hunger Games were mandatory viewing and not everybody owned a television. We didn't. I had never seen such a good quality screen in my life. Like everything in the Capitol it was the very definition of excess.

They were in the middle of the broadcast, so the reapings from District 7 were just being shown. There was strong eighteen year old boy who obviously had been logging most of his life. The girl was small and slight, with wispy ginger hair. She looked terrified, but given the circumstances who would not be. I saw Stitch make his way out of the sixteen year old section, then I volunteer for Iva. District 9 had two weak looking tributes, and I felt sorry for them. District 10 had a young girl and a boy my age, neither of which standing out to me. The girl from eleven looked sort of strong, but no doubt comparatively weak. I had not seen any of the Careers yet.

District 12 were hard to look at. At least they had a week of luxury. Usually District 12 did not even make it past the bloodbath. The program started again and it was back at District 1. They were both volunteers, but it was sort of interesting. When the first girl was chosen, the blonde girl directly next to her shook her head. The girl from one, whose name turned out to be Krystal, definitely glanced at her before making her way up to the stage to volunteer. I did not quite know what to make of that. The boy did not hesitate.

Then there were what looked like two muscular boys from two, the smaller of which was a girl if you looked closely, that glared and were intimidating. District 3 I felt sorry for again. They probably would not last past the bloodbath either. I really hoped the boy would make it though. District 4 was strong as well, but not as intimidating as the first two Career districts.

I looked to the side and realized that Stitch had already left. I did not know when that had happened, and realized that I really had to pay more attention to the things around me if I wanted to stand half a chance.

"I guess it's just me," I said to nobody, then watched the rest of the program in silence. I tried to remember faces but not names. I wanted everybody to remember Suffra Hadley as a human being, not a random statistic going out to the slaughter. If I wanted to get home though, I could not do precisely that to any of the others. I would be very hard to win the Hunger Games without killing anybody.


	4. The Opening Ceremony

**If you want to vote on your favourite character, you better do it soon. There are going to be some chapters for training and interviews, but other than that I'd like to get to the arena as quickly as possible. In the arena I will start killing off characters, so vote soon. **

**Otherwise, any reviews will be greatly appreciated! :) Enjoy the story. **

**The Opening Ceremony**

**Krystal's POV**

"You aren't exactly the best and brightest that District 1 has to offer," Prissy, one of the prep team, said in a gossipy tone.

"Remember that girl last year; she was so gorgeous," Callub, another one of the prep team, gossiped right along with her. "Too bad how it ended. Didn't even get to the final eight. That was the least she could have gotten us. We didn't even get any recognition for her."

"And that dress at the reaping. I could have altered that just enough to make it seem perfect," Prissy said. "Opal would not have needed that."

The prep team were idiots. _Do not kill them, do not kill them, do not kill them. Do not _accidentally _kill them. _Perhaps Lacey was right. 'Accidental' was a term that somehow seemed ambiguous. There might not be conscious intent, so it would still be an accident, but you might be acting upon it subconsciously.

"That's a shame. I really would have liked to have a Victor this year. We'd get to go to all of the best parties," Callub complained.

"You know I'm going to win, right?" I grated. _Do not kill them. _They prattled on like I had not spoken.

"That boy from 1; he is really something isn't he. He's classic District 1 stock. Maybe a little too muscular but his stylists would have no problem doing something with him," Prissy continued, her pink hair bouncing up and down as she skipped over to a counter to add some sort of other fragrance to my hair. Nobody from the Capitol would be able to smell it from the chariot, so I had absolutely no clue why it mattered.

The Capitol was incredible. Situated between mountains there was incredible scenery, but that did not compare to the buildings. I was not big on architecture but even I could see that it was amazing. Then I had been told to strip naked, bathed, waxed and covered in several layers of cleanser before I had even been considered presentable. And I was from an almost upper class family from the luxury district. What would they have to do with the tributes from District 12? Not that it mattered for that particular district, they would not last past the bloodbath and they were always dressed as coal anyway. There was nothing flattering about coal.

Then they had started with the hair. They were meant to style my hair before the stylist came to dress me in some sort of intricate garment. So far the hair had taken an hour and a half, and although I had not seen myself in the mirror I knew that they were not nearly finished yet.

"If Garnet and Opal came together, they would have such pretty kids," Callub mused. He tugged some more loose strands backwards and I just glared forwards. Was that really what the Capitol thought was an ideal coupling? A boy with a whole of two brain-cells and a flirty ditzy girl who got murdered in her sleep last year by a thirteen year old tribute from District _3_ out of all districts.

"If Garnet and Opal _came _together, there would be no chance of them having children. It's a fight to the death, not a dating show," I practically growled. Emotion was a bad thing. _Ignore them_. But somehow I couldn't seem to. It got progressively harder when they finally finished with my hair and then looked right at me. _Oh crap. _I had completely forgotten about the makeup.

"Wow, she looks almost good now," Prissy announced when she was finally finished the best part of an hour later. "Smile please." I smiled, but it was forced and may have looked more like a grimace.

"There aren't that many fantastic looking tributes this year. I would hate to have to prep that girl from2," Callub said.

"How about that girl from District 8. She is a bit thin, but there must be something that they could do with that wonderful blonde hair," Prissy said. "Too bad I'm stuck with a brunette this year."

I wondered whether it would be a relief to go to the Hunger Games just to get away from them.

"I can take it from here," my stylist, Tula, eventually came in and dismissed the prep team pair. I thought about it. Usually there would be three of them. I heard from their endless gossip that the other woman was sick, and secretly I had been incredibly glad about that. Listening to two of them was bad enough. "Leave your robe. You won't be needing it."

Slipping my robe off, I followed her.

"Close your eyes," she commanded, and I froze. I hesitantly closed my eyes but kept them slightly open. At least with the prep team I had been allowed to watch them. "Jeez, I've got a jumpy one this year. Opal was so good."

"Yes, everybody loved Opal," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. Opal had trusted people, even in the arena. That was a big mistake. I wondered how she had got away with that for so many years. She volunteered. Surely she had been in training. Trusting people and letting them get me in a vulnerable position had been drilled out of me years ago.

"Fine then, keep your eyes open," Tula said exasperated, and I realized that I had also annoyed my stylist. "It won't be a surprise then."

I left my eyes opened and watched her. I was in silver again, except this time it was actual silver woven into the whole body of the puffy dress. Tula sprayed me with glitter spray, and when she got to my face she insisted that I had to close my eyes. This time I obeyed because I knew exactly what she was doing. My hair was sprayed silver to go with the dress. When I saw myself in the mirror afterwards I just looked strange.

Garnet was dressed almost identically except his costume only covered his groin area. The rest of him was covered in glitter spray like me, and his hair was also sprayed silver. We approached the chariot. We had a pair of wonderful white horses.

I found the other chariots lining up behind us. District 2 was dressed in gold, an overused concept. The girl still looked like a guy. Vaguely I remembered that we were meant to be allies. That was the classic way of doing it.

So I just smirked at her, giving her a wink. Ray and Katran just glared at me. Staying allies with them would be harder than I'd thought and we had not even spoken to each other yet. Technically we could probably go and talk to each other, but all of us were still posturing. The alliances were already a given, and would be decided in training tomorrow.

The cheering picked up and then we were off. I waved randomly but did not give the audience that much of my attention. They liked the aloof people.

**Dina's POV**

My stylist had not paid me much attention. My prep team did what they did, but they did not pay much attention to me either. Mainly they were just grumbling. They knew that they would not be getting invited to the best parties again this year, and apparently hated me for it. That was ultimate injustice. _They_ hated _me_ for being forced to go to my death?

I had to dress myself. Okay, that was normal for me, but he had just left my clothes in a bag. From what I had heard from previous games, that was not the norm in the Capitol. Somebody else had figured it out too: I was dead.

The reminder made me start crying again, smearing my makeup across my face. I did not have a mirror but it probably made me look terrible. It was already time to go out to the chariots so I made my way over there. I was trembling so hard that I almost couldn't climb in.

"Do you need any help?" a female voice asked. I turned around to find the girl from 8 looking at me. Great, I had made myself seem weak to the adversaries as well. She was dressed in a random pattern of colours, starting from one shoulder and making its way down to the opposite angle. Her makeup made her eyes seem sharp, like nothing could escape her notice.

"I'm f-fine," I said, annoyed that my voice was trembling.

"I'm Suffra," the girl from 8 said, looking at me again. She then looked around, glancing at the Career tributes from 1 and 2, and behind us at the pair from 4. "Anger makes you seem tougher than tears. Glare them down like you hate them."

"Districts 1 and 2?" I asked. Suffra nodded, even though the expression on her face told me that it wasn't quite what she meant.

"Good luck," she said, and then she was gone. I watched her return to her chariot and sit next to the boy from her district. Then there was a loud cheer as the crowd saw the wonderful silver costumes that District 1 was wearing. District 2 prepared to set off, and only then did I notice that I had not managed to get into my chariot yet.

I slipped again as I tried to climb up and Bert actually helped pull me up. I settled myself in just in time for the horses to start moving, then I held onto the sides as hard as I could. The Capitol was not cheering for us as much, but I had not really expected any different. It picked up again at District 4, then petered out again for the rest. The possible exception was the chariot from 7. Although they were dressed as trees as usual, the boy was getting a lot of support. The girl waved a lot as well, perhaps not noticing that they were not cheering for her.

The chariots paused for a speech from the president himself. It dragged on and on. I did not listen to the details much and surveyed the competition more. They looked even scarier in person than they had done on a TV screen. Being wedged between the Career districts really did not help in the slightest.

When I was finally allowed off the chariot I all but hugged the ground. It felt great to be on the ground again. I headed into the training centre, grabbing the first elevator that I could. Unfortunately I was with the pair from 4.

"Hi," I said weakly.

"Bloodbath," the boy said, and the girl nodded. I tried to shrink away into the corner, and as soon as the elevator stopped at floor three I ran out as quickly as I could.

**Suffra's POV**

I was not going to have any more to do with the girl from 3. I probably should not really have given her hints like that, tried to help her. I saw the boy. He looked sort of smart. Perhaps he would make it past the bloodbath. Perhaps that would not be a good thing. After the bloodbath, deaths were usually slow and painful. I did not want that for a twelve year old.

She would probably not manage that feat. I just did not want her to spend her remaining days snivelling. Perhaps she could enjoy her last few days here at the Capitol. They were horrible, I know, and thinking about them made me so angry that I could manage to just glare straight ahead like I suggested for her to do. But there was food. More food than I had ever seen before in my life.

I was not going to have any more to do with the pair from 3. I'd helped them more than any of the other tributes had so far, and now I could get back to the more important task at hand – my survival. I had to make it out of here.

There were not many cheers for District 8. That was alright, for now. I would need sponsors, and this was a second first impression. Still, training scores and interviews were always more prevalent in getting tributes sponsors unless they screwed up totally whilst on the chariots.

Then there was President Snow's speech. That made me angry too, how he justified sending 24 innocent children to their deaths every year. I would never say anything out loud like that though. I did not have a death wish.

The girl from 3 looked wobbly on her feet and I forced myself to pull my gaze away. I had to ignore her now. I rode the elevator with the boy from 7, squashing in next to him.

"I'm Suffra Hadley," I introduced myself. Step 1 of personifying me: everybody should know my name. I would target the Careers tomorrow. They would already try and take me out in the games**. **I doubt that anything I could do within reason could make it much worse. 

"You're the girl who volunteered to save her twin, right?" he asked, and I nodded.

"I care about her a lot. I'm not sure what she would do without me," I said. The elevator was incredibly fast. It binged, indicating that it had arrived on the seventh floor.

"See you tomorrow," he said, and I smiled at him. It took a mere moment to reach the eighth floor and I quickly stepped into the main room. Cecelia, one of my mentors, was about to speak to me but I was not quite ready.

"Can you please wait until tomorrow," I said quietly. She was smart; she was infer something different. I had not given up. I just wanted to play out my tactics by myself for now. That was mainly because I was not completely certain that they would work. I did not want her to tell me precisely that. If caring Cecelia told me that, my hope would completely die.

Dead hope was the most deadly thing of all.

For now I had a plan. I re-watched the reapings from the beginning, noting how the blonde girl from 1 that Krystal had glanced at wore her hair, then spending an hour trying to replicate it as exactly as possible. Tomorrow I would pull some Career heart-strings.


	5. Training Day 1

**Chapter 5, time for a Disclaimer Reminder: The Hunger Games story belongs to Suzanne Collins. I do not own anything, except the characters that I create. **

**Also, a little further author's note: I loved writing this chapter. This is the first main chapter where all of the characters come together. As we saw in the last chapter, Dina and Suffra already met, so it had already started a little bit. Please review to vote on your favourite characters. Seriously, I am lacking reviews over here. Have fun reading! **

**/**

**Training Day 1**

**Krystal's POV**

"Krystal. Krystal. Kristal!" Delilah called, and I snapped to my senses.

"What?!" I demanded. I looked around the room and glared at Garnet, who was not looking at all in my direction but instead eating as much breakfast as he possibly could. I hoped that he would eat too much. It would be so funny if he threw up in training. Maybe the rest of the pack would then decide what I had: that he was an idiot.

"You are holding that knife awfully tight," she said. I had absolutely no patience for her. Garnet obviously thought that _I _was beneath his notice. My mentor decided that I was gripping my knife too tight. In the arena I would be in trouble if I _didn't _grip my knife tight enough.

"How on earth did you ever win your Hunger Games?!" I asked. Delilah did not seem that particularly strong. She looked tough but really she did not seem to be. "Random luck? Every other tribute being killed in a random accident?"

"You've watched the reruns. Should you not be able to tell me that," Delilah challenged.

"What kind of name is _Delilah _anyway? It doesn't really sound like you are from District 1," I snarled, gripping the knife even tighter. My knuckles were beginning to go white so I forced myself to release my grip.

"You know _nothing _about me," she hissed. "You are tense about what is going to happen today. I am meant to mentor you. There is quite a chance that you will get killed if you don't play it smart. That's advice for you."

I watched her go, and distracted myself by thinking about what I had learnt about Delilah. She had been the one to break up the pack by murdering the boy from 2 while she was meant to be on guard, then disappearing when the cannon sounded. Sticking close to the dispersed pack, she killed girls from 2 and 4, leaving her district partner for dead. In the end it was down to her and the boy from 4.

Delilah was not really District 1's favourite victor, and the Capitol definitely preferred Cashmere. Not many people saw her around, and I reckoned she usually stuck around her house. Why? She had tons of money, which meant she could basically have whatever she wanted.

I tied my hair back into a simple ponytail and headed down a whole floor to the training centre. Someone pinned the number 1 onto my back. The pairs from 5, 6 and 9 had already arrived. I vaguely registered my lack of district partner as Garnet had not come down with me.

"Boo!" I said suddenly, and all of them except the boy from 5 flinched. I rolled my eyes, then let myself look at all of the weapons. Wow. They had some weapons that even I had no name for and had no clue how to use. I would stick away from those. That was when I remembered Lacey saying that I should do some things which I did not know. Wait, Lacey…

For a moment I forgot where I was because I thought I saw her, with her hair like she had styled it for the reaping. I almost called her name when I saw one of the aids pin the number 8 onto her back. Then I just felt stupid. The boy from 8 was also next to her.

"Hey," the girl from 8 smiled, and I noticed I was still staring at her. "Recognize me?" She twirled, not acting at all like somebody from the lesser districts.

"Nope. Have not seen you before in my life," I said, glaring her down. Not strictly true. I'd seen her in passing in the opening ceremony now that I knew who she was. She was the one who had volunteered for her own sister. I'd thought that was just to save her sister. Maybe she had a plan too.

"Your sister not happy that you are here?" she asked in a sickly sweet fake way. That girl from 8 was perceptive. I really did not like her. "Mine isn't either. I'm Suffra by the way."

"Suffra," I mocked, testing the word. "You know that sounds a little like _suffer_. I will make you suffer."

"Would you want somebody to make your sister suffer?" Suffra said. _You have to wait until the arena. Then you can strangle her, _I told myself.

"My sister is not here."

"Whether you come back or not, she might be next year."

"You forget that I am from District 1," I glared at her. "District 1 has volunteers."

"Have you not noticed; District 8 also does," Suffra said, gesturing at herself. She then turned away from me, and I glared at her again balling my fists. I turned around to find the pair from 2 sniggering at me.

"What are you doing talking to the lesser districts?" the girl, Ray, giggled. She did not even giggle like a normal girl. Her name was that of a guy too.

"Were you born a girl or did you have a sex change?" I asked her and the looked or her face was priceless. Katran laughed with me, and I smiled a sexy smile at him. "So, you have any talents?"

"I can kill you with a range of weapons," Katran bragged.

"Can't we all," I challenged him back. I waited, tapping my foot and getting generally more impatient as I waited for the others to arrive. Garnet was one of the last to arrive, and finally the woman, Atala, told us the rules and let us get going.

Katran launched himself at the wrestling like her was magnetized in that direction. The boy from 7 went straight to the axes. Ray went to the knife station, Spear stayed true to his namesake and Anemone joined him a second later. I drifted for a little while before I went to the sword station, letting myself take in all of the different shapes and sizes.

It only took me a moment to find a decent machete, perfectly weighed for my size and strength. I looked up again and found Suffra watching me. Her hair style really did look like the one Lacey had worn to the reaping. I was beginning to think that maybe it was intentional.

There was something about that girl from 8.

I smirked at her, twirling the machete around expertly and thrusting it into the stomach of a dummy with so much force that it reeled backwards. Pulling it back out again, I aimed just above the head to the string that attached it to the bar slightly above me. The dummy toppled to the ground and I jumped on top of it, rapidly holding the machete to its neck.

"Good for you; you've been training all your life," Suffra said sarcastically, and I held the machete up into the air again.

"Don't insult me; I've got a weapon," I said.

"I wasn't insulting you; I was being snarky and sarcastic," Suffra said, not changing her tone in the slightest. Nobody from District 8 was meant to act anything at all like that.

"You are dead, bitch!" I yelled at her. If I'd wanted to kill her I would have. I just wanted to teach her a lesson, so I stabbed at the space just next to her. She was fast though. Incredibly fast. Almost before I knew it I had a knife to my neck. I managed to notice the flaws in her grasp – she was not holding it right, thrusting it with enough force and her hand was trembling – before I pushed her backwards into a pile of weapons. A gash opened itself up on the top of her arm as she fell against the blade of another sword. Anger pulsed through me as I went to stab at her again, but I found myself held back.

_Stop! _I forced myself. I could probably have broken the grip of the guy that was holding me, but that would only reflect negatively on me. Now that I was calming down, I realized that they could probably punish me by giving me a low score if I did not stop now.

The rest of the pack were laughing. I swapped to throwing knives, imagining that each of the targets was one of their faces.

**Suffra's POV**

I winched as the Capitol medic dabbed cleanser into my wound. Tears came to my eyes but I tried to blink them back. My arm was hurting badly but my mission was sort of successful. Honestly, that girl from 1 terrified me. But it had been worth it. The other Careers had seen me get that knife to her throat. They no longer thought that I was a weakling. Maybe they even saw me as a possible ally.

The Career alliance was maybe the only alliance I could possibly join without having any emotional attachments. Careers were overconfident, cocky, and often too willing to kill the other tributes in gruesome ways. I could not bring myself to feel much sympathy for them, so it would be easier to break the alliance later.

However I did not trust them. I did not think that girl from 1 did either. If she did not hate me that much I probably would try and enlist her in my own private alliance. Me and a killing machine Career. I had never expected that to happen in the past. I'd never had enough time to think about what I'd do if ever I was chosen.

"We are going to have to stitch your cut," the medic said, which made me wince again. Did he not know a thing about medicine? I'd learned a while ago back at home with factory wounds, it was easier to stitch things up without telling the person prior to the time if it was necessary. That would just make them dread it and make it more painful.

"Okay," I simply said. It was not as painful as I had been expecting; there must have been some painkiller in that cleanser. Then I was allowed back into the training area. Stitch looked at me when I came in but I did not approach him. He still looked incredibly shocked with what I had done.

It was just a public face. I had to seem bloodthirsty. Seeming weak and wimpy got you no points in the Hunger Games.

I also had to learn survival skills. I went to the edible plants section. Being from 8 I would have absolutely no experience with survival skills so I better learn as much as I could. Survival skills were more important than weapons. Then I would learn a little bit with knives, as those were the most easily accessible weapons that seemed easy enough to use. Perhaps I would even learn how to throw them.

That was a game plan. I had no idea what to do for my private session with the gamemakers, and I would probably only get a low score. Still I reckoned that learning how to survive was more important than getting sponsors. According to my stylist I was beautiful. That would help get me sponsors anyway.

The boy from 11 was already in the edible plants section. He looked about thirteen but I knew from re-watching the reapings that he was fourteen. The trainer showed us various different edible plants and I remembered them as much as I could. I focused on the very obvious ones for now, as I did not trust my plant knowledge enough to recognize the subtle differences in leaves the showed the difference between an edible and a deadly fruit.

"There is nothing like this at home," I said in the middle of the session. The trainer looked at me sympathetically but I had really been talking to the boy from 11. "I'm Suffra. I might be back here tomorrow."

Then I smiled at the trainer. That too was for the boy from 11, but also for the trainer that time. Next I learned how to make a fire. It would be more useful for setting a trap than keeping warm. Even I knew that smoke left trails, I'd seen enough coming out of factories. Other tributes could see it from miles off.

It took me a few hours to get the hang of that. I figured it out with matches almost straight away, but there was no guarantee at all that there would be matches in the arena. When I was done I could set a fire with just sticks and stones ninety percent of the time within five minutes.

_Snares, drinkable water sources, _I checked the next two items on my list. I would learn as much as I possibly could about survival today. Learn like it was the last day I had left to do so, then review the most important skills tomorrow.

It felt so much better having a plan.

**Dina's POV **

I held the knife precariously, knowing that I was meant to throw it. This was a knife-_throwing _station so it was sort of obvious. But I could not bring myself to do so. If I missed, everybody would think that I was weak. The knife was getting increasingly heavy in my hand, so I held it tighter to prevent dropping it.

Hearing laughter, I lost focus… and dropped the knife. I jumped to the side as it clattered to the ground. The pair from 4 had joined me again, and instinct told me to shy away from them as much as possible.

"Definitely bloodbath," the girl nodded at me again, then looked away like I was beneath her interest. This was roughly were I had my 'eureka' moment. If this was a cartoon – I had vaguely watched one last night on the big TV in my room – a light bulb would switch on above my head. I was beneath their notice. If they did not notice me, they would not kill me.

I had another attempt that the knife throwing with slightly more hope, and then it died. The knife clattered on the ground half way to the target. My 'plan' had absolutely no chance of working if I didn't even get the simplest things right. It was all I could do not to start crying again now.

What I did instead was run away. I ran so I was no longer with any of the Career tributes and found myself in the centre of the room at no particular station. Turning around, I found that I was a little too close to the boy from 7. He was juggling axes like they were the lightest things in the world. The boy from 1 saw this and did more and more intricate moves with swords, challenging him.

I stumbled backwards away from them. They were such show-offs. Looking upwards, I saw the girl from 7 looking down at me from a climbing frame that was above most of the training area. She dangled backwards, her ginger hair spilling downwards like a curtain of blood.

Ignoring her as well, I stumbled again over to the camouflage station.

"Please teach me something to help me live," I begged the trainer. He seemed almost disinterested in me, and was instead looking at some of the random leaf designs that you could camouflage yourself into. The leaves moved, and I blinked to find Bert there.

"Hi Dina!" Bert exclaimed. He actually acted like he was sort of excited, but I hadn't a clue how. Maybe he had some sort of tactics decided. If that was the case, he was doing so much better than I was.

"Hi," I said dimly. I just sat there, watching Bert have as much fun as he could camouflaging himself into a range of different backgrounds. He would hide. I should at least figure out how to run.

**Krystal's POV**

Lunch: as if I needed to eat again after all the plentiful meals that I'd had in the Capitol lately. Those lower districts still ate like they thought they would never see food again. For them, that might even be a valid assumption.

Garnet was with Districts 2 and 4 at the main centre table. I would join them as soon as I had recruited that boy from District 7. Apparently his name was Walton, but I did not care that much about him. I would probably want to take him out as quickly as possible, whether he joined the alliance or not.

I pulled my hair out of the ponytail and smoothed it back again, letting it fall over my shoulders in a messily attractive way.

"Hey, District 7!" I called, pursing my lips and leaning across the table. "You want to join us for lunch?"

Of course, that was not just an invitation to lunch, but also an invitation to an alliance. Walton glared at me, and I gave him an innocent smile.

"I will not go with you to hunt down innocent children, torturing them brutally to death," Walton said coldly, and I glared back at him.

"Well, you certainly are direct," I said. "Trust me though; you do not want me as your enemy."

"What? That girl from 8 almost managed to take you out. I would be able to do it easily if it came down to a fight," he growled.

"That girl from 8 never could have cut me. She was not holding that knife nearly right," I said with a lot of bravado. Still, I hoped that Suffra would not learn. She might actually be sort of decent. If I could catch her, I would try and kill her in the bloodbath.

That was a big if. From what I'd seen, she was fast. Training or no training, she was _naturally _fast.

"The answer is still no," the boy from 7 smiled mockingly, and I glared at him once more before heading towards my temporary allies.

"Boy from 7 says no way," I commented.

"How about that girl from 8," Ray mocked. "I bet _she _has potential. If that had been a fake match you would have been declared dead."

Ordinarily I would be concerned with not living this down, but as the pack's days were numbered I was not too worried.

"Ask her yourself," I growled, then started giggling. "You are twice as slow as I am. I bet she could easily kill you given the right chance."

"If you like her so much why don't you ally with her," Ray hissed at me.

"_You _were the one who had just suggested allying with her," I mocked her. Did nobody on this alliance have any brain cells? Anemone and Spear just stayed mainly silent. Either they were completely uncomfortable and intimidated here or they were just idiots. I did not know which one but did not care enough to find out. Garnet only had the capacity to either think _or_ talk at the same time, something that would be very funny to watch during the interviews. Katran just acted all macho, but I did not think he was as tough as many of the previous District 2 volunteers.

"Oh yeah right…" Ray remembered, glaring at me for making her seem dumb. "I'll go do that then."

I watched her when she walked off, not trusting her in the slightest. Maybe I should just take an alliance with Suffra instead of the pack. That was not the classic way of doing it, but she did not have that much training so would be easy enough to beat. And although she was clearly not to be trusted, she was more trustworthy than any of my other 'allies'.

"Only if she gets a decent score in training," Garnet insisted. For them, that was done. Except for Ray, who still had not heard the current decision.

**Suffra's POV**

The girl from 2 approached me. I knew that for a fact before she even sat down. It was not just because I was watching her, but more due to the fact that I had been eavesdropping the Careers' conversation in general.

"Just come over here. Loitering just frightens everybody!" I yelled to her before she approached. She – I thought her name was Ray – looked shocked, then bared her teeth menacingly.

"Maybe that was what I was going for!" she said coldly. I rolled my eyes at that. If I wanted to survive I could not let Ray intimidate me. Instead I just looked the other way, quite literally, and ignored what she was doing completely. Sensing when she was behind me, I turned to face her rapidly.

"Why are you here?" I asked, and she answered bluntly.

"We may or may not want you in an alliance. Personally, I think you are a very stupid girl who will be killed off in the bloodbath, by me in particular, if you do not take this offer."

"Thank you," I said in a fake sickly sweet sort of way. She really thought that I was going to do it. That spoke volumes for her brain cell capacity. "But I'll pass."

I turned my back on her again, glad for the gamemakers that were constantly watching us. If not, I was sure that she would have punched me in the back of the head. I would not ally with Ray. Only possibly to save my life, but if that were the case my life would only stay saved for the length of time it took to torture me to death.

Rules for surviving the Hunger Games with my tactics: act tough for the Careers, personify myself and trust my instincts. My instincts were saying nothing good about Ray… or Katran either for that matter. I was sure that part of the District 2 training regime beat any compassion and reason right out of them. It didn't seem quite like that in Districts 1 and 4, although they still won far more than most. The boy from 1 was not that intelligent, the girl was slightly unstable, but the pair from 4 seemed more rational. They were usually less trained though, so I would have to watch out for them.

Lunch finished, which was a good thing. Other than the Careers, everybody just looked so lost by themselves at lunch. The girl from 10 and the boy from 11 were sitting together though. Whether that was an alliance or just friendship I would not check, but I was glad that they at least were not lost on their own.

Throughout the whole morning I had learned about edible plants, starting fires and finding safe water sources. However, at that stage it had been later than I had been expecting so I would have to learn some basic snares in the afternoon. First I started on making traps that would catch animals, which of course I could cook on the fire. I would have to, although it might be dangerous, because I was warned about the dangers of raw meat and I had absolutely no resistance to those bacteria. It took a while for me to perfect it. Then I went on to some traps that would work on other tributes.

A few hours later I decided, finally, to move on to the weapons. Knives to be exact. Again, they would be the easiest to find. If I could not find one, they were also relatively easy to make out of rocks if you knew how. I did not know how. I'd better learn that tomorrow, and I added it to my mental list.

The mental list was good, it was distracting. It made me hopeful. Hope. I loved that word.

**Dina's POV**

I had sat alone at lunch, unable to bring myself to sit with Bert. I was not sure what to do about him, nor what to do with myself. It was clear with the morning and afternoon training sessions that I had absolutely no prior skills whatsoever. Finally, after about twice as long as it had taken almost everybody else, I figured out how to make a fire. Once. I tried repeating it again but found I was unable. The boy from 5 came to join me.

"I did this station earlier," he said. "You need any help."

As if he would be able to help me where the experienced trainer had tried and long given up on me? I doubted that it was even possible. But I let him sit down next to me anyway.

"I'm Gregor," he said. I smiled at him uneasily. "You are from District 3, right?" A completely pointless question with the number still pinned on my back.

"You're from the power district, aren't you?" I asked, also a pointless question.

"Yup," Gregor said.

"So making fires must be second nature for you by now," I said.

"We don't make that type of power."

"Oh."

"Are you smart? You are from District 3. I was pretty good at the snares this morning. If we both make it past the bloodbath that might be a good strategy, don't you think," Gregor said, and I wondered why he was telling me that.

_He thinks I'm faking being weak_, I realized. Too bad that I was not actually faking, but I would let him think that. Maybe he would protect me.

"Yeah; I'd be able to help you with that," I said. It was ninety percent a lie, and just like that I had made an alliance, not completely on purpose. I was glad that this time for a change, I did not start to cry.

If District 5 could protect me, I would be eternally glad for it. For the first time in a while I felt hope. I smiled uneasily. Finally, with Gregor's help, I actually managed to get a fire going just before the end of the training session. It was the best I'd done in days.


	6. Training Day 2

**Training Day 2**

**Krystal's POV**

Everybody was already down by the time I got of the elevator. This time I did not have to wait around for as long before I was allowed to commence. First I started with knives again, and found that Suffra had joined me. I glared at her.

"Go on then, your excellency," Suffra mocked sarcastically. "Show me how it is done." She gave me a mock bow, then started laughing.

"You hold a knife," I explained equally mocking. "Make sure you don't drop it on your foot like that girl from 3 almost did yesterday. Then, you toss it at the target and try and get a bulls-eye."

"Duh," Suffra said. "Do you know where the roof is?"

"Um… atop this building," I said.

"_Obviously," _Suffra said. "You go up to the twelfth floor, avoid a probably drunk Haymitch Abernathy and then take the stairs. I'll meet you up there tonight. Let's say eight p.m. We can discuss some sort of arrangement then."

"Who's saying we want to be allies?" I almost growled at her, and Suffra just pointed at me.

"You are," she said, then moved away from me to the shelter building station. Other than knives, Suffra was only really going to the lesser stations. They weren't frequented by any of the tributes from 1, 2 or 4 but I remembered yet again what Lacey had said. Maybe at some point I should focus on edible plants or snares or something. Everybody already knew that I could use weapons.

Katran sneered at me when I headed towards the edible plants station. The trainer looked shocked when he saw the number 1 pinned to my back.

"Bored of weapons?" he asked and I rolled my eyes.

"Can you show me what to eat and what is poisonous," I asked, somehow seeming to lean towards the latter. The Capitol would not like this, but what if I just poisoned the pack instead of letting them split up? That was such a lesser district way of doing it, I know, so I practically dismissed it straight away.

After he was done showing me, I was told to separate the plants into two categories.

"What happens if the plants aren't edible or deadly?" I asked. "Which category do I put those in?"

"This station only shows the edible and deadly plants," the trainer told me, something which by the look on his face I should have figured out a little while ago. I pouted at him.

"Well, I don't have much experience in… _botany_," I hissed, then began sorting them. Berries seemed to look the same after a little while, so if I was in doubt I put them in the 'deadly' pile. When I was done, there were only four berries in the 'edible' pile. The trainer sorted them into the correct piles. Out of the four berries I had chosen as edible, only three were. That did not sound like too much of an error margin until you thought about the fact that I would have eaten them.

_Note to self: pack plenty of supplies before going anywhere._

"Hello again, Krystal," Suffra said. _Is she following me?! _"How did you do in the sorting test?" Not just following me. She had clearly been watching me as well.

"So-so," I said.

"Not well, huh," Suffra said. She grinned at me innocently. "If you want to suck at something else there is camouflage over there. I am heading that way."

"No thank you," I said coldly, walking away from the edible plants section. I think I had embarrassed myself enough. Time to go back to what I knew: weapons. _This is what happens when I listen to Lacey. _

**Dina's POV**

I met with Gregor for the start of training, and took to following him like a lost puppy. I did not know what to do by myself, and he was going to some useful stations. Plus, even seeing how pathetic I was at _everything, _he still wanted to be my ally. Maybe he thought I was acting pathetic for the other tributes still, or he was not the most intelligent one. I did not care, he was more protection than I'd had before.

We worked through the stations almost methodically. I saw the girl from 8 again before she went to the edible plants station to talk to that Career tribute. Really, a Career at the edible plants section? If I was right, she wasn't that good at edible plants either. That was weird. District 1 probably thought that there would be no need to train their tributes for edible plants as they would have control of the Cornocopia with all of the best supplies.

Today I actually sat with Bert. He was not as excited today, probably aware of what was going on. In four days the Hunger Games would begin. In four days, there was some chance we would both be dead. It was really hard to be happy thinking about it that way.

"You know what," I announced eventually. Not that loud, comparatively, with the amount of noise the Careers were making. District 2 had taken to calling the girl from 1 'Princess' for some reason, and I had found out no more because as soon as that had started a knife had ended up brutally slammed into the table so hard that it actually stuck. It was a butter knife, and the tables weren't weak. "I'm going to get you through the bloodbath."

There had never been a twelve year old victor in the Hunger Games before, but there was no reason why things could not change. Plus, I knew that I would not be making it out – _don't start crying again Dina, don't start crying… too late _– but Bert actually had some skills. If I found him some decent allies maybe he would be able to make it through, and could win when the Careers killed each other off.

It was so much easier making plans for somebody else though. After lunch I watched as Bert tried more of the climbing, this time clambering along there with the girl from 7 again. Was she not going to do any other type of training? Bert was talking to her, and they were whispering. I was not sure whether she could be trusted though.

"Gregor, do you think we could include Bert in the alliance?" I asked. This was the only productive thing that had come out of the day. I had cried half the morning because I sucked so much with what I did for the rest of the morning.

"He's the twelve year old, isn't he?" Gregor asked. I nodded. "Well, I won't be able to live with myself if I don't try to protect him, so he can come with us if…" He cut off, not that he needed to say any more. _If any of us survive the bloodbath. _

"What about your district partner?" I asked.

"Casey made it very clear that she did not want to team up with District 3. She says she has her own strategy worked out, but our rooms are next to each other. I can hear her crying at night. She sobs that it isn't fair and that it was her last year legible, and why fate would do that to her," Gregor said. "But she's from home. I hope she really has some sort of plan worked out."

"What do you know about District 7?" I asked next.

"Walton and Mimi? I don't know that much about them. Walton is definitely trying to win, but I am not sure about the girl," Gregor said. "Why don't we continue training now?"

"I'm no good at this," I said, almost crying again now. I hated being reminded about how much I sucked.

"Krystal was no good at plants," he said. "Nobody could possibly be good at everything the first time round."

"Who is Krystal?"

"Girl from 1."

"Do you know everybody's names?" I asked. Gregor nodded. "Why?"

"It's good to know what you are up against," Gregor said. "You'll do better. Don't worry."

The way he said it was incredibly clear. I was his charity case. He did not think I was good, or if he had at the beginning he no longer did. He was trying to help. In something like the Hunger Games, that was almost scarier.

**Suffra's POV**

The training day was nearly over. I only had tomorrow left. That actually made me terrified. I had returned to the edible plants station and was satisfied with my level of recollection. Then I continued my knives training, and even moved on to light spears. They were incredibly heavy to lift, and due to frequent hunger before coming here I was not the strongest person by far here. My limited weapons skills would have to be refrained to knives, as half a day was nowhere near long enough to learn a whole new weapon.

Tomorrow morning was training. Tomorrow afternoon the tributes went in, one by one, to their private sessions with the gamemakers to show what they could do. Those would be scored out of twelve, and usually 10 was the highest that was attained. Apparently they preferred weapon skills over survival skills, and even learning much about knives I doubted I could score more than a 5.

The final thing I was going to learn today was climbing. I could climb up the net easily enough, but when I tried the climbing wall I was not the proficient at finding the best footholds quickly. Eventually I managed it but it took a while. I climbed back down and looked up at the wall, noting the best places to put my hands and feet. I would have to do that prior to every climb.

I was small. Being off the ground would undeniably be the safest place for me. I didn't feel that particularly safe there yet. I was about to try again when Atala called that it was the end of training.

Floor 8, like the training area, was getting tenser the closer it got to the Hunger Games. Stitch was trembling, although he was trying hard not to let it show. He was stronger. Where I had failed with the spears he'd had some success, using them as his weapon of choice. However, he was nowhere near as good as the pair from 4, who surely had been using spears all their lives.

"I'm going to my room," I mumbled after I had stuffed myself with as much of the least rich food as I could. I wondered if Stitch had told my mentors what I had been doing in the training area, but up on the 8th floor I allowed myself to act less. I always escaped to my room so I would not have to answer any questions about my strategy. It probably was not flawless, and I really did not want to hear the unresolvable flaws.

Perhaps I could talk to my mentors tomorrow, after I saw how the meeting with Krystal went. Whether she would even show up. I had challenged her to, but that did not guarantee that she would be there.

Time ticked by slowly, but about 10 minutes before I was due to meet I began heading to the roof. First I stopped off at the kitchen, grabbing the biggest knife that I could find that could still be concealed under my shirt. Then I wore a coat, because if not there was an obvious bulge showing. It was dark. A coat was probably smart.

After that I actually went to the lift, zipping up the 12th floor without running into anybody there. The girl from 12 was obviously tossing and turning in her sleep. I'd seen her in training. She was so skinny with hollow eyes, much more so than I was. She could not run nor had any distinguishable skills in training, and would likely not last past the first day.

"Good luck," I whispered, although I knew that she was sleeping. I stepped as silently as I could up the stairs, then waited behind a plant close to the entrance of the roof. The view was incredible on the roof, especially at night. Never before had I seen that many lights.

Krystal was late, but eventually she showed up. I watched her for a few minutes before I made myself known. I probably was not that good at concealing myself, but the darkness made that task a lot easier.

"So you showed up," I called to her. Her head snapped around incredibly quickly, her eyes narrowing to try and make me out in the dark. She obviously spotted my silhouette because she stopped trying to look as hard. "Does District 1 not train its tributes in plant skills?"

"Don't talk about things you are clueless about," Krystal said coldly.

"Then tell me," I challenged her. "If we are to be allies you should at least prove that you trust me." _Not that I trust you, but it's interesting to see what I will find out. _

"I don't trust you," Krystal said, basically echoing my thoughts. "Trust is a massive weakness." That part had never been in my thoughts. Blind trust was a weakness. True trust was strength.

"Wow. How do you sleep at night if you cannot trust the people around you? How will you ever trust anybody else to be guard?" I asked.

"I sleep lightly," Krystal said pointedly. She looked like she was thinking about something very deeply for the moment, but I was not going to ask what. That would make me seem weak and she would not tell me. "What did you call me here for?!"

"I have a proposition for you," I told her, before explaining. "When the Career pack breaks up, but not before, we will be allies. I have some knowledge now with plants and shelters, and you have the obvious weaponry skills, so I reckon it will be mutually beneficial."

Really, I needed somebody to take out the competition. It was incredibly low, but I needed to get back to District 8 and I was not sure if I had it in me to kill another person.

"Do you really think you will last that long?" Krystal asked.

"Do you really think the Career pack will last that long?" I asked. Krystal shook her head, then seemed to go deep into thought again. "Do we have a deal?"

Krystal thought about it a bit longer. Eventually, she held out her hand. For the first time I approached her, taking her hand in mine and shaking it.

"Deal," Krystal confirmed.


	7. Training Day 3

**Training Day 3**

**Krystal's POV**

I still did not trust Suffra, but she made a fair point. The words 'mutually' and 'beneficial' were actually a great reason to go into the alliance, especially if she took care of the plants and I had the weaponry skills. That way I could easily beat her if necessary.

But the alliance did not really have to be with Suffra. Surely the girl from 11, as the boy from 11 surely would not last long, would know more about plants than somebody who had just started learning about them two days ago. District 9, the grain district, might also be a good pair to target. I would watch those going to the various lesser stations to see who was better.

I was not going to offer myself up for alliance just yet; I would wait until I was in the arena. After all, there I would have the unquestioned advantage. And with that strange alliance with Suffra, she might not even last long either. Maybe somebody would take her out in the bloodbath and I would not have to worry about her, but I did not think she would stay around for the fight.

Or I could just rely on sponsors. District 1 always got sponsored a lot.

Looking around, I saw the girl from District 7 was _still _dangling from the netting above me, lying there like it was the most natural thing in the world. Perhaps that was because she did not have any skills and did not want to cry about it like the girl from 3, who was looking at the net nervously, obviously trying to climb it but not sure how.

The boy from 11 was actually quite good with plants and was teaching the girl from 10. They were getting very close and there seemed to have been an alliance between them for days. The girl from 9, now that I looked at her, was useless, and her district partner was only a little better.

Definitely sponsors.

**Dina's POV**

It took me a while to figure out how to climb the net, but as I had not been fast enough to find Mimi, the girl from 7, before training and she did not appear to want to come back to the ground I had no other choice but to climb up to her.

"Hi Mimi," I managed to say eventually, when I was half way up.

"It's easier to rest if you come all the way up to the top," Mimi said, and I trembled even more as I realized that I was afraid of heights. Finally I plopped myself down next to her, the net holding me up completely. I still gripped it tightly because I was not quite sure that I would not slip off it backwards.

"Aren't you going to do any other training?" I asked.

"Oh, I already know plants and shelter building," Mimi said. "And there is no point learning about weapons as I am not going to kill anybody."

"How can you win the Hunger Games without killing anybody?" I asked.

"I can't," Mimi said. "I'll try and survive as long as I can, but I am not going to win. I'll try and keep Bert alive for you though."

"How do you know that is what I am here for?"

"It's pretty obvious that you wanted to ask me something big, if not you would not have dared climb up here," she said. I nodded. She was right. I was glad that she could figure things out though, as she seemed trustworthy enough. "Are you also asking me for an alliance?"

"Um… maybe," I said. I had not thought of that.

"We'll see," Mimi said. "How are you at edible plants? It looks like there will at least be some of those in the arena with the variety that they are teaching us."

"How do you know? You've been up here practically since training started," I said

"I observe," she said, then fell silent again. I watched her for a second, then looked downwards and did the same. The boy from 2 yelled in frustration because the girl from 4 had basically monopolized the sword station for herself and wasn't even the best at it. The girl from 10 and the boy from 11, whose names turned out to be Celia and Hawk respectively, actually had a plan but did not speak of it in enough detail for me to figure out what it was. Bert, somehow, did not know that he was meant to be part of the alliance with Gregor and me. I was shocked when I realized that I had forgotten to tell him that, and forced myself to do that as soon as we were alone together again.

The boy from 12 was trying to convince himself that he had a hope by trying out the swords for last minute weapons skills, trying hard to avoid Districts 2 and 4, but nearly dropped the blade end on his foot and fell onto the ground hard. His district partner ran over to him, a pace that seemed painfully slow from my eagles-eye perspective, to see whether he was alright.

Mimi gave me a strange look that suggested she knew what I was thinking: that this was the most productive thing I had done in training so far. From up here I could see the strengths and weaknesses of all of the tributes. Mimi had figured it out on day 1.

If Mimi put her mind to it, she probably could go really far. Perhaps she could even win, but she seemed insistent that she did not want to kill. I could almost imagine what the commentators would say when they figured that out: it was too bad. District 7 did not have a living female victor, and would not be getting one now.

**Suffra's POV**

Last night on the roof had gone pretty well, but Krystal's face was far from the blank slate she obviously thought it was. She did not trust anybody here, including me. The alliance, like the Career one, would be one that might form but not last for long. It was probably something that would depend on how the Hunger Games progressed.

There was only about half an hour left before lunch. I had visited every survival station at least in passing, allowing the more time for the skills that I thought would be most useful and taking in as much as I could. I had started thinking about my tactics at the bloodbath. I had to be the first one to move, but I could not go before the gong sounded or I would be blown to smithereens. Then I could probably run to grab something good before one of the others reached a distance weapon to take me out.

My next plan would be to sit as close to the Careers as possible today, see who they had picked out as the easy targets. The obvious ones that would be seen as easy target were the pairs from 3 and 12, perhaps the pair from 6. Usually they wanted to take out major threats as well in the first minutes.

I finished off with the survival training and walked to lunch nervously. I knew that I was going to do something with knives for the gamemakers; I had to. Grabbing as much food as possible for my plates, piling them up, I sat down to the table nearest to the centre one where the Careers usually congregated. The girl from 7 with the wispy ginger hair was already there, like she had been since the first day. Perhaps she'd had the same tactics I had now, except she'd figured it out a lot sooner.

She nodded at me, and I felt shivers run up my spine. Yes, she had the same tactics, and also knew why I was there. I tried not to show how much that frightened me as I nodded back, and she put a finger to her lips and pointed at the Careers.

"We should take out that boy from 7 in the bloodbath," the girl from 4, Anemone, was suggesting with a lot of vigour. "I wouldn't want to hunt him down."

"Wow, you are such a wimp. He doesn't stand a chance against me," Katran said cockily, patting Anemone on the back mockingly.

"Take out that girl from 8," Krystal said, and I glared daggers into her back. She wasn't good with alliances, was she? Just at that moment I wanted to strangle her.

"That girl isn't a danger to anybody except you, Princess," Katran mocked.

"I can't believe we ever even considered her for an alliance," Ray butted in.

"How about we definitely take her out if she gets more than a 5," Krystal suggested. _Is she or isn't she on my side? _There was one thing I knew for sure. My tactics had to adapt. I was not going to get any more than a 5, although that had been likely to begin with. If I did not get more than a 5, they would not see me as a threat.

I had to talk to Krystal before the Games. She'd brought me to the other Careers' attention, then told them if I sucked enough they would not have to take me out. I could not see what she was doing, whether she even had any tactics or whether she was just trying to dispel and rumours about our possible alliance.

**Krystal's POV**

Suffra was glaring at me. I had my back to her but I could still feel that. Garnet was probably the only one who was not noticing, and he was facing her. The interviews were definitely going to be interesting with him. I almost bet that he would accidentally slag off the Capitol and probably pay for that in the arena in some way. That suddenly got less funny when I realized that I would be affected by that too, as we would probably be together as allies.

When I turned around, I saw that Suffra had stopped glaring and was now talking to that girl from District 7. Suffra was talking about her twin, who was called Iva, and I was not sure how it was even relevant. Now I knew the name of some random girl in District 8, a district I had never even been to, but not the names of half of the competitors. _Fair enough._

"There aren't that many strong tributes this year," Ray was saying. "Most of those lesser districts would probably die from the elements if we left them to it for a couple of days."

"Oh Ray," Katran said, sounding exasperated. "Where is the fun in that?"

"Sitting around, sunning ourselves at the Cornocopia eating food and having plentiful water," Anemone mused. "I could think of less enjoyable activities."

"Well done," Spear said. "You have just made yourself sound like a stupid bimbo in front of everybody."

"Are you honestly saying that you would not enjoy it?" Anemone asked pointlessly, and I sneered at her. They should be calling her 'Princess', not me.

At that moment it was announced that it was time for the private sessions with the gamemakers to begin. I was from District 1, so I would be the second person to go as boys always preceded girls in the private sessions.

Garnet went in and it took about fifteen minutes of waiting around, listening to and occasionally joining in with the pack's banter, before I was finally called in.

"Krystal Alrich, District 1," I announced, before starting. I began by lining up four dummies, smiling then placing a different weapon in front of each of them, before starting off with the spears. Not that I like spears that particularly much, not even stopping at that station during the regular training time, but I wanted to show that I was good at a variety of weapons. The spear hit the dummy in the stomach, making it reel backwards on its string. I pulled the spear out, with the exception of the sharp end which had broken off in the dummy, and tossed it into the main weapons pile. Axes next, and I embedded the end deeply into the second dummy's head.

Then I went on to the knives, aiming one for the head, one for the chest and one for the abdomen so they landed in a perfect vertical straight line. That dummy would probably be declared dead at least twice. I placed my foot on the end of the machete, stamping on it so it flung upwards and I caught it in my hand. At that stage it took a little bit of focus to maintain my composure and not shout 'ta-da' at the gamemakers.

The fourth dummy got cut up into little pieces. I slashed the limbs off separately, then went in for the final stab where the heart would be. Turning around, I bowed at them with a cocky smirk on my face.

"You may go," one of the gamemakers said.

**Dina's POV**

I refused to sit wedged between the Career districts as I waited. It was a relief when both of them from District 2 disappeared, but that just meant that I would be next after Bert and I had absolutely no idea what to show them.

Bert went in, and I smiled and wished him luck. _What do I do? What do I do? _The more I pondered over it, the more confusing it seemed to get. If only I was classic District 3 smart, not just regular district average intelligence. That way I would probably be able to use my wits to survive.

"Dina Larson!" I was called in before I was ready. There were tons of discarded weapons in a pile, but that was probably from Districts 1 and 2 rather than Bert. I looked upwards to see the netting where Mimi had spent all of the training days.

"Dina Larson, District 3," I announced, trying not to sound weak as I slowly climbed up the nets so I was perched above everybody else looking down on them. As there was nobody else there, it did not have as much effect. I surveyed the area.

"There is a broken spear in the weapons pile. The camouflage station has been used" – that one was probably Bert –"And I am in less danger of being attacked up here," I finished. Usually they cleaned up what the other tributes did, but as I guessed where Bert would have been there were indicators. I probably would not get a good score, because I had to talk them through what I was doing, and done nothing except watch.

"You may go," a gamemaker said.

**Suffra's POV**

I headed inside slowly, intending to do survival skills and gravitating towards the edible plants station, but shaking my head forcing myself to stand in the centre of the room first. I announced my name and my district, then I started at shelter building and made a relatively solid one against the nets. Carefully, I picked out some edible plants. My hands hovered over a deadly one.

The trainer had warned me about this one. If you ate it, just a little bit, you would die. I had asked then, because I had some foresight, what would happen if you cut yourself and a bit of the berry-juice got into your bloodstream. I had said it like I was scared.

"Avoid it at all costs," the trainer had said. "You will die within seconds." Same result, basically. But it had given me an idea. It was a sick and twisted idea, which is why I almost hoped that they did not have that plant in the arena, but it would work. I would just have to be very careful.

If I poisoned the end of a knife, all I had to do was cut the opponents slightly and they would die. I would do anything to get home, but I did not think I was capable of murder like that. Not yet.

_No, _I told myself mentally. I was not going to show the gamemakers that. I did not want a high score, as the Careers had already been talking about me as a target. Krystal had brought it up, but then dismissed it. It would probably have come up eventually anyway, but that way all rumours about out alliance would dissipate.

"Thank you," I said when I was done. The gamemakers obviously did not think that I had finished, or they would have dismissed me. About a third of them weren't even paying any attention anymore, having been the 16th person they'd had to watch in a row. I estimated that a few of them had stopped paying any attention at all after District 4.

"Thank you," I repeated again as they dismissed me. I wondered vaguely which score I would get.

**Krystal's POV**

"How did you do?" Delilah asked, and I turned my back to her.

"Get me sponsors, but other than that I don't see why I even need a mentor," I growled, and Delilah grabbed my hand hard turning me towards her.

"How badly did it go?" Delilah asked.

"It didn't go badly," I said indignantly. Delilah smiled at me knowingly. "Honestly, it didn't."

"You are nervous to see how you compare to Districts 2 and 4," Delilah stated, like there was absolutely no doubt in her mind. I glared again, as I knew using words would be pointless to somebody who was convinced that she was right. Delilah and Lacey shared that quality. "The scores will be shown in half an hour. Why don't you eat something?"

"I'm fine," I said, still staring her down. Delilah gripped my hand tightly, then gave up and pushed me backwards. Aiming for a knife on the table without looking, I grabbed a fork instead and figured that it was close enough. She seemed to calm down, and snatched the fork away from me, telling me to sit down.

"So, are you allying with that girl from 8?" Delilah asked. Her tone was carefully empty, so I did not know whether she would approve or not. In truth, it was complicated. It was technically a done deal, but there was a large chance that when the pack broke up, there were too little people left to realistically have alliances.

"No," I said defensively.

"You two talked on the roof last night," she said. _She knows about that!?_

"Let's watch the results," I said quickly, switching on the TV and hoping that she would not push it. For somebody who won her Hunger Games by betraying alliances, she did not strike me as somebody who was particularly understanding and I did not like talking to her.

Luckily, Delilah did not push it and the training scores were displayed about fifteen minutes later after a lot of commentary. We in District 1 were the favourites. Good. Garnet got a 9. He pounded his fists at that in the adjacent room. I waited for my score and a 10 flashed across the screen.

_Good, they like me mutilating dummies, _I thought. Katran also scored a 10, whereas Ray with all of her bragging got only an 8. District 3 were up next. The 12 year old got a 4, and the girl only scraped a 3. Spear got a score of 9, and Anemone only managed 7.

"We should kick her out of the alliance!" Garnet yelled, more likely at the TV than at me. We had not spoken much although we shared a floor.

Walton, the boy from 7, also got a 10, which meant he was a definite target. Suffra only scored a 4, which probably stopped her being a target for the time being. Good for her. Then I mainly zoned out, as none of the districts above that got any more than a 5.

**Dina's POV**

I got a 3. That was hopeless, and it was still the best that I had possibly tried to do. Bert got a 4 though. He was happy enough with that. Gregor did better, scoring a 5. Casey, his district partner, also scored a 4. Mimi got a 5 as well. All in all, we looked like a rather mediocre alliance.

"That is horrible," I said. I went to my room and started crying again, which was actually the best time to do it. Tomorrow I would get training for my interviews, and the day after that the actual interviews took place. Then I would be thrown into the arena.

Two more days guaranteed left alive, and that was it. I cried and did not stop until it was incredibly late, and I did not think there were any tears left in my body.

**Suffra's POV**

A four. That was okay, I guess. It did not impact my strategy, but actually reduced my possibility of getting targeted by having a lower score. What was worse is the way Cecilia tried to comfort me, like she knew that it was one of my last days. I gave in and told her that I had no intention of going down. I would not consider what would happen if I did.

Stitch did a lot better. He got a 6, which was just above average. I congratulated him for it, and he smiled and pretended that my score was great as well.

"Can I see you in my room for a second?" he asked. I nodded and followed him, sitting on the plush bed and waiting expectantly.

"What?" I asked.

"What are you playing at?" he asked. "Anybody can see it in your eyes that you have not given up yet. That was probably the only reason that they gave you a 4 and not lower."

"How would you know that? You did not see what I did," I said, although he was right. A score of 4 was suspiciously high for what I did, not that I knew exactly what the score boundaries were. "I'm glad you did well."

"Why?" Stitch said bitterly. This time, I forced myself to say the alternative.

"Because if I don't get home, you winning benefits everybody at home the most," I said. Everybody would get packets of food in parcel day every month, and be provided with tons of other gifts. It was the one good thing that came out of the Hunger Games, but it only occurred for the winning district. Our district did not win frequently. However, with the amount of food I had seen at the Capitol, they could _easily _feed themselves and the districts.

That was when I decided that the interviews would actually be very hard. Ignoring the stage fright of talking in front of an audience of millions, it would be difficult to pretend to like a place that forced children to fight to their deaths every year and starved you when there was clearly another way.


	8. The Interviews

**The Interviews**

**Dina's POV**

"You can't take it!" I sobbed. I had pledged not to remove my necklace no matter what happened, but apparently it had to be taken in order to be examined. Beetee had explained, with a lot more patience than most, that the district tokens had to be tested. Apparently tributes, likely those from Districts 1 and 2, had tried to gain unfair advantages by sneaking in objects that contained weapons.

One Capitol attendant held me in place as another one pulled the string attaching the cog over my head. I screamed at him hysterically, and he looked at me sympathetically. Then they were gone, taking my last reminder of home with them.

Today was meant to be training for the interviews. I probably needed all the help that I could get in that department, but whenever I tried to get up I gave up and slumped onto the ground again. I did not want to play the Capitol's games. Fighting to my death was bad enough, but did I really have to act like I was ever-so glad to be here? It was sickening.

"I-I-I'll just smile and wave," I stammered when Beetee came for me. "C-can I-I p-please just stay in for a little while longer?" My escort was apparently going to help me with poise, which I knew some rough things about so I reckoned I could skip that session. It did not matter much anyway.

Curling myself back up into a ball, I hid my face in the pillow until Beetee retreated again. Somehow the faces of all the other tributes were lodged in my brain, hovering around Bert, Gregor, Mimi and Suffra, the girl from District 8. _Anger makes you seem tougher than tears; glare them down like you hate them_, Suffra had said. She'd definitely meant the Capitol, although that could easily have been misunderstood.

Why did I have to die, when they got to live happy lives? I felt the stirrings of anger inside me, and somehow thinking it over again I found a rather different conclusion, after which I told the logical part of my brain to shut up.

Obviously I was useless. I was going to die. Using that logic, shouldn't I try to live for as long as possibly possible? The first step of that would be to have a decent interview; nobody usually noticed a girl who got a three in training when they wanted to sponsor tributes.

Or I could be invisible. That was obviously not going to happen though; they had already chosen me as a weak link. The interviews were definitely the way to go.

I got up and stumbled, then tried to find Beetee to actually start the interview training.

**Krystal's POV**

"Oh, look, it's one and a half days off," I'd figured out. We did not have to get ready for the interviews until about midday tomorrow, and they'd take place tomorrow evening. Hatty, my escort, had glared at me when I had declined to be trained in the morning.

"Honestly, what do you think you could teach me that I had not learned years ago?" I'd asked mockingly. Delilah had roughly figured out the same thing and straight out asked whether I was cocky or smart.

"I'm smart," I said.

"Okay, come into the other room and have some interview training," Delilah said.

"I'm smart, not stupid," I'd sneered. The training area was closed for the day, in order to prevent me from getting an unfair advantage (hah!) over the other tributes who actually had to use this time because they had no interview or people skills. "So, how long do you think Garnet is going to last?"

"I am not going to answer that," Delilah said. There did not seem to be much else to do, so I flicked on the television and watched some highlights from previous games. The boy from 2 that had won last year was doing an interview, telling how happy he was that he had won. How his life was fantastic now and… I droned him out.

It was obviously a good thing being a victor in Districts 1, 2 and 4. I wasn't that sure about my mentor, but other than that everybody seemed to be rather happy after they had won. They got to go to the magnificent Capitol every year, whether they were mentoring or not, and have all this nice food.

_Shut up me, _I told myself. Of course I was going to win. There was no reason to consider anything else until after the games were over. The Hunger Games weren't nice; they never had been, but they only lasted for about two weeks. Once they were over, there would be no reason to bring them up again… except for the few dozen interviews and mentoring the following year and some years after that.

Time ticked by incredibly slowly. In the evening, I escaped to the roof again, breathing in the air deeply. This was me being nice; the Avoxes should be allowed to clean up my partially destroyed room without me throwing a vase at them. I'd got bored and started throwing stuff, then envisioned that the pieces of furniture were some of my fellow tributes and destroyed them as well.

It was as close to training as I was going to get today. Unfortunately I did not have weapons.

"C'mon, really?" I hissed as I sat down at the edge of the roof. The boy from twelve was already there, and he was crying. He was at least sixteen; had he not heard of being a man? Clearly the answer to that question was a 'no', because he flinched when he saw me, an expression of ultimate fear crossing his face. "You act like I'd kill you now. Nope, I'd wait to the arena. Wouldn't want to get _disqualified _or punished, would I?"

He scampered away and I started laughing. This was going to be fun. _No it won't, _the part of me that was probably my conscience hissed.

"This will be fun," I repeated out loud again, forcing that little part of me that doubted it back down again, though I knew it would not stay that way for long.

**Suffra's POV**

As far as I could tell, interview training was a success. Content was actually the easier part. I sort of had a strategy planned out for that, and there weren't that many different options open for somebody who scored a 4 in training.

In the afternoon I was stuck with Baba, and she went through everything from sitting up straight, to holding my hands properly, to walking in heels. I seemed to have more problems with that than with the content, but I managed to just about figure everything out by the time the day was up.

The following day passed in a blurry haze. Time seemed to go faster as the Hunger Games approached, and I got this constant pit in my stomach that I could not fill with food. My prep team prepared me, my stylist fitted me into nice clothes, but all I could think about was that tomorrow I would be going into the Hunger Games. It was so scary.

All the tributes accumulated together in one area behind the stage. They would have to sit in a line when the interviews begin and wait their turns. I looked around and found Krystal staring at me. She was in silver again, with a flowing dress. Her hair had been styled into long dark curls, a stark contrast from the light and sparkly silver.

As soon as she saw me noticing she rapidly looked away. I found myself still watching her. She was not comfortable with the other Careers, and clearly did not trust them. Krystal did not trust anybody. I vaguely wondered why that was, but I told myself not to go find out.

I did not want to personify my adversaries. I'd decided that days ago but it was getting harder the more I saw them.

The Capitol anthem started up. The interviews were about to begin.

**Krystal's POV**

I was first up, being the female from District 1. We stood in a line, but I could still feel Suffra's eyes on me. Meeting her gaze, I flashed her an intimidating and cocky smile.

"First up, the girl from District 1, Krystal Alrich!" Caeser Flickerman boomed. I waved at the crowed as I sauntered over to the chair in my high heels and silver dress. The crowds' cheering was deafening. District 1 have always been the favourites.

"Hey Caeser," I said, sitting down and crossing my legs. "Green this year? Have you not noticed that my colour is silver? You are going to rapidly go out of fashion." Some of the crowd applauded my utter confidence, other oohed at my directness.

Caeser dyed his hair and eyebrows, everything, a different colour every year. Last year it had been purple, this year it was a light shade of green. The winning tribute's costume design and token became a new fashion trend every single year. I had just announced that I was going to win.

He laughed. "Okay, I'll bear that in mind. How are you liking the Capitol so far?" They always asked this one.

"_So far_. I see that somebody is paying attention to the facts here. It's been great. Everything here is just so grand and magnificent, although I'm sure I'll see a lot more of it when I return to mentor next year," I smirked, giving the crowd a mock mini-bow although I was still seated.

"I see that you are confident," Caeser said. "A 10 in training. That was the joint highest along with Katran from District 2 and Walton from District 7. Do you have anything to say about that?"

"Oh, they still don't know what they are messing with. Katran isn't the brightest spark, and all Walton ever did were things axe related. Now, what would happen to _poor Walton _if there didn't happen to be an axe within his reach?" I said, mockingly towards the end.

"Do you have any targets for the upcoming games?"

I smiled again, but did not answer with words. Instead I just motioned backwards grandly, generally towards Garnet and District 2. Then I glared towards the area where Suffra was sitting next to Walton, before looking right back at Caeser. The crowd was going wild.

"We are nearly out of time," Caeser said, and the audience gave out disappointed groan. "Is there anybody back at home waiting for you? A lover, perhaps?"

"Nope, no lovers," I said, smiling seductively at the crowd. "Nobody back in One seemed good enough. Here though… what a choice…" I let myself trail off, leaning forwards so the crowd got a better view of my cleavage. The buzzer indicated that the time was up, and I walked back over to my seat again. Garnet was called up.

It was hard for me to supress the massive grin that was threatening to form on my face as I watched Garnet. This was going to be so funny.

There were some random pleasantries, all given by Caeser Flickerman as Garnet just tapped his fingers on the chair, before they actually got to the proper questions.

"So, a 9. That's just a little lower than you district partner," Caeser started. The crowd roared when they were reminded of me.

"I'm sure that was only because she stripped off in front of them," Garnet said. That was the longest thing I had ever heard him say, and it was against me. I glared at him, and got even angrier when some people, who had been on my side just moments earlier, started laughing.

"Are you not going to be allies?" Caesar asked. He was obviously confused as well. Usually the pack did not speak out against each other in the interviews.

"Alliances are human shields," Garnet said. If he wanted his _allies_ as human shields, he should not point that out in front of the whole of Panem. I bit my lip to prevent myself from laughing. I would be surprised if Garnet made it to the final eight.

"Okay…" Caeser said, obviously shocked by that as well. "How have you liked the Capitol so far?"

"You wigs look silly and why don't we have that kind of machinery?" Garnet said. The crowd literally booed him at this point. Final 12? If he was lucky. I bet he would be torn apart by muttations as soon as it was feasibly possible.

Garnet's buzzer went off then, and I inched away from him so I would not be associated with him much. Ray's was average. Even with adding a lot of padding around her bust and hips, she still looked like a guy. She was getting no marks for sex appeal. Katran was putting me down by calling me a traitor, and revealing my sort-of alliance with Suffra. That was bad news for me, but the Capitol would probably figure it out as soon as we were in the arena together anyway. He also said that Anemone did not score high enough, and was out of the alliance.

Then the girl from District 3 was called up.

**Dina's POV**

"Dina Larson, the girl from District 3!" Caeser called me up. I quaked in my high heeled boots, nearly falling over twice on the way there. Everybody already knew I was weak, but me actually being weak without faking it made it seem acutely worse.

"H-hi," I stammered out. Tears came to my eyes again. The only angle I possibly had to play was nice or weak, and that was it. Basically I had to get through this, ideally without falling flat on my face. I had nearly done that a few times, so I wasn't sure of my success rate just yet.

"Hi, Dina," Caeser greeted me. "You look very beautiful today."

Caeser helps the tributes out if they are nervous or really don't have any skills. The Careers usually did not need it. I would seem bad by comparison just by following them.

"Th-thank you," I managed. "Y-you too. I mean… you look… um… handsome."

_Crap_, why had I said that? Caeser had looked the same age as long as I could remember. I did not want to imply anything like that, I just had a lack of things to say.

"Thank you, Dina," Caeser said, almost talking down on me like I was a small child. "The stylists seem to agree the green really is flattering. Who designed your outfit?"

"Um… my stylist," I said. I was meant to elaborate, but when I tried I just saw in minds-eye a terrified girl stammering through an interview on camera. Me. Compared to the others, I did not even look that pretty.

"What is your strategy for the games?" Caeser asked.

"Um… don't die," I said. That really was my strategy as far as I had figured it out. Caeser laughed.

"Yes, that is a good start," Caeser said. "Now, before we go, is there anything you want to say to those waiting for you back at home?"

"I… um… care for you all. I am realistic," I said. It would do me no good to say goodbye live on TV. Nobody in the Capitol would sponsor me, but they would be even less likely to do so if I'd actively told them that I had given up.

The buzzer buzzed, and when I wobbled back to my seat I was so incredibly glad that it was over. All in all though, the interview had been terrible. I still stood no chance.

**Suffra's POV**

The Careers were really having a go at each other. Krystal had basically promised to take out her district partner, something that would intensify her support in the Capitol, and District 2. The boy from 1 had messed his up, but by the way he was still cockily smirking he did not know it. He would not be sitting on a stage talking to Caeser Flickerman again.

Ray tried to seem cocky, I think, but she did not score that particularly high when it came to Career terms. Katran was aggressive, and revealed my alliance with Krystal and also stated in front of the whole of Panem that Anemone was out of the alliance.

The camera then panned to Anemone's face, but she kept it carefully blank. Then all eyes were back to the boy from 2, but I was no longer paying attention to his interview. I thought about Anemone. I had been shocked that she'd only got a 7. Her interview would be quite interesting to watch.

District 3 came next. The poor girl still seemed pathetic, wobbling to stage and stammering her way through the interview. Then came the boy. He acted really sweet, and somehow had the ability to get the crowd on his side whether he even knew it or not. They cheered loudly when he was finished, and some started crying.

They loved the twelve year old from District 3, because he was sweet, but knew he was no killing machine. He would not be able to win and they knew that.

Anemone came up next. She still acted completely self-assured, and spoke of her life back in District 4. From the way she talked she did not sound like a regular Career, but like somebody human. I forced myself to stop listening to her as well, because she was going to go into a fight to a death against me. It was bad enough that I already knew her name. That would make her harder to kill if necessary.

I really did not like thinking like that.

The boy from 4, Spear, came up after that. His approach did not stand out that much comparatively. He was trying to be aggressive, but he was being nowhere near as successful as Katran had been. Districts 5 and 6 were relatively uneventful, and I could sense the crowd was beginning to get bored. The girl from 7 was elusive, which was a good act for her. I did not know that much about her myself.

The crowd roared for the boy from 7. He came across as arrogant and the crowd simply lapped it up. I bet at least half of them were considering sponsoring him out of their own money. He would be a tough act to follow.

"Suffra Hadley, the girl from District 8!" Caeser called me up. I gave the crowd a winning smile before managing to walk properly in my heels up to stage.

"Nice to see you Caeser," I said, before smiling generally at the camera again. I was meant to be cheerful. I could give them cheerful. As it turned out, although I hated the Capitol, I could gush. "It's so wonderful here isn't it. The scenery is like nothing I have ever seen before. And the people… let's just say there has been so much support."

"It's very different here than it is in your district," Caeser agreed.

"Yes, I know," I said. "Usually my twin Iva and I would have to work late evening shifts just to get enough food for the family. There is no need for that here."

"You volunteered for Iva, didn't you?" Caeser said, knowing very well what had occurred. Anybody watching recaps of the reapings would know that I had volunteered.

"Yes," I said. "I love her so much." I skipped out the part where I would say that I couldn't let her fight to the death, cruelly being murdered, but that would not go down well in the Capitol. I could not say anything like the boy from 1 had, which would make me an immediate target for the gamemakers. "I don't know what she would do without me."

"Well, you'll just have to return back to her then," Caeser said. The crowd cheered and then the buzzer indicated that my interview was over. I was incredibly relieved that I'd got that over with. Forcing my lips up into a smile, I watched the rest of the interviews. Stitch came up next.

He tried to be funny, but that did not suit him and half of the jokes he made fell flat. District 9 was rather mediocre. I struggled to remember their training scores, then decided that the boy from 9 was one of those who'd got a 4 like me. I couldn't remember what the girl had managed.

The girl from 10 obviously had a plan. Apparently she had a hidden talent. Technically I had one too, something that sponsors would see when the Hunger Games began. I could run. There was no point making myself a target before the games began again though, so I had remained silent on that topic.

The rest were simply mediocre but I still had to watch out for them. It was important not to underestimate the adversaries, no matter what.


	9. Getting Ready

**A/N Okay, this is a short chapter that is mainly filler, but I would like to start the bloodbath in a whole separate chapter. Have fun reading this anyway, and review with comments and vote for your favourite characters. Hurry up with the voting. The Hunger Games are about to begin and if I kill a character I will not be bringing them back. **

**Getting Ready**

**Krystal's POV**

It was dark. The interviews had just finished and it was time to get to bed. I knew I should try and sleep, but my mind would not let me. I had been training for this for years, but now that the moment almost arrived I just felt apprehensive.

Thinking back several years, nobody from District 1 had been killed in the bloodbath. The last time that had happened was the 50th Hunger Games, a Quarter Quell special in which twice as many tributes competed. Two boy and two girls from every district had been chosen instead of just one. I honestly would not like to have competed that year. And _District 12 _won out of all the districts. I would not have expected that, but I guess it was because he was a lowlife who resulted to cheating, and the girl from my district should have won. I had always been told that when I watched those reruns.

My odds this year were a lot better. The only ones I really saw that would be problems were Katran and Walton. Garnet was done for, District 4 was useless, and Ray also fell within that latter category.

I sort of wished that I had not been first to go in the interviews. Yeah they loved me, but I did not get the opportunity to get District 2 down as much as they could have. Anemone had looked angry. They had excluded her from the alliance, which was a dangerous thing to do right before the games. They were thinking of getting rid of me as well.

_What? So they are down to just the four boys in the pack? _I would have asked. I laughed at myself. The crowd would have. Alliances had not been spoken off much in the interviews, but I was sure that Suffra would have denied it if she had been asked.

Nobody thought the skinny girl from 8 had any chance of surviving an alliance with me. They were right.

_Brain: switch off, now, _I ordered myself, still staring up at the ceiling. I did not feel any less tired, not even being exhausted at all. Having spent the last two days doing practically nothing, there was no way that I was even close to exhausted.

_Now go to sleep, and you can be even less exhausted, _I told myself. Another few minutes passed and then I started counting seconds. At 200, I gave up, throwing a robe over my body and sitting in the common room again, flicking the TV on.

Walton was a favourite. They were doing this entire show based on him. He was a logger's apprentice who had been playing with axes since he was ten. This was as trained up as those from any of the lesser districts got, but unlike most of them he was actually good.

How about Katran? If I forced them together somehow, one would die and the other would be injured. It was a perfect plan as far as I had ever heard one. The odds for the boy in 7 were actually more likely from their betting point of view than mine were.

Walton had to go and soon. I would have my first shot at that tomorrow.

Then they switched to highlights from one of the previous games. Again there was an interview going on, like there always were this close to the games beginning. A District 2 Victor called Brutus was backing Katran with confidence.

Then there were more highlights. At some point I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew light was streaming through the open blinds and onto my face. I blinked sleep out of my eyes and sat up, fully alert at once.

It was 6:30 in the morning and everybody else still seemed to be asleep, so I grabbed a big breakfast of anything that I could pile up, watching carefully as the escort came and hour later to wake the rest of us up and take us to the launch stations.

A tracking chip was inserted into my arm and the windows were blocked out so I could not see where we were going. It would likely be somewhere with trees. That could be anywhere in the wilderness. Tundra would be further north, where it was actually cold at this time of year.

The launch room itself was underground, a cavern of rocks. On one side there was a table, and Tula my stylist came in and gave me a bag of clothes to wear.

"I'm assuming you don't want my help getting dressed," she said, guessing completely right. She handed me the bag and the bracelet Lacey had given me. I had forgotten all about it after taking it off before training started, and was unable to remember when they possibly could have taken it.

I reread the inscription: _never forget who you are. _Then I rolled my eyes, because that wasn't something that I could easily forget. Krystal Alrich, future winner of the Hunger Games. Soon it would no longer be 'future winner', and would change to 'reigning Victor'.

"See you in a couple of weeks," I told Tula after I had turned around to get changed. None of the others stood a chance. I was confident of that now. Only a few minutes left until launch time so I helped myself to some of the water, thinking through the key targets, envisioning what I would do.

_You've done this hundreds of times before, this time the targets are just moving a little more, _I told myself, smirking as I knew that it was true too. None of the others stood a chance. I stepped into the cylinder and almost immediately it started rising. It turned around and locked into place, giving me a view of the arena.

**Dina's POV**

I could not sleep. Whenever I closed my eyes I saw myself getting killed over and over and over again. My allies were able to do nothing to stop it. Sometimes they were even a part of the slaughter, on both sides. Gregor killing me, Gregor being killed beside me, Bert being killed, and even Mimi.

Mimi did not even want to come back. She would not even go down fighting, but in her own way without killing anybody. I, although I saw how unlikely it was, still wanted to survive, but saw no way to achieve that.

The night dragged, and I don't think I got any sleep in the end. My escort came to wake me but I was already half awake, and I followed her as if in a haze. I screamed when they inserted the tracker, and watched with blurry eyes as the scenery passed and everything went dark. I was transported into a launch pod, and I felt myself crying again. This time, for the strangest reason, they were tears of happiness. I saw my cog necklace on the table on a bag that contained my clothes and next to some refreshments.

Running forwards I slipped it around my neck. At least I would have it with me when the inevitable happened. Then I tried on the clothes which somehow fitted perfectly, tying the boots up and seeing what I had.

The jacket and trousers were lined with a heat-reflecting surface, so it was likely that there would be cold nights. There was a lot of grip on the bottom of the boots, for climbing perhaps? Not much time was left for me to figure it out as I was called into the cylinder.

When I was inside there, cut off from the rest of the world, I screamed just once. I was so close to possibly dying! Why would nobody listen to me? Could they not stop this? A torrent of tears fell down my face as I tried to grasp the inside of the cylinder as it rotated upwards, anything to stop me from going into the arena.

"No!" I screamed.

**Suffra's POV**

Somehow all the crowds had made me exhausted, but that might just generally be because I was a lot fuller than I was used to. I lay in bed and closed my eyes, getting to sleep almost immediately but not staying that way.

I was looking at myself from the outside, seeing myself die in many different ways. Or at least I hoped it was me. If it was Iva, that would have been even worse. At least with me there was a minor chance that I could win. Iva could not fight. I could at least run.

At about seven-thirty in the morning I was woken up by Baba, who had no confidence that I would make it through. I could tell that just by looking at her. It made me lose my resolve for just a second, then I pledged just to prove her wrong.

"Good luck," I told Stitch between stuffing mouthfuls of food into my mouth. Stitch obviously wanted to say something else but he stopped himself.

"You too," he just said, then we were rushed out of the building and transported to the launch pads in separate helicopters. I bit my lip to prevent myself from throwing up. Just one more hour and I would be thrown into a fight to the death with people I had seen training for days, many of whom got better scores than me.

_Don't think like that, you have a strategy, _I reminded myself, which was true. I tried to focus only on that thought and it actually helped. My stylist helped me get into my clothes, and I predicted a colder hilly terrain with what we were given. I put on the ring, feeling the gold plating. It was literally the most expensive thing my mum owned. I hoped that I would not ruin it in the arena.

"2 minutes," my stylist pointed out, and I stuffed myself with as much food as I could although I was already very full. I tested the footwear by running up and down. Good, that worked. Even though I was heavy with food I actually felt faster than I had done back in District 8. This was probably due to a general increase of strength by eating better.

"Good luck," the stylist told me, practically pushing me into the cylinder when I grabbed the sides as hard as I could. Forcing myself to let go I regained my composure.

"I will win this," I said to myself. "I will win this." The cylinder rose and the arena came into view.


	10. The Bloodbath

**A/N: Okay, this chapter is slightly darker than the ones preceding it, as you might expect. The descriptions aren't as vivid as they could be in order to maintain the T rating of this story. The tributes get narrowed down a bit in this one, but you can still review to vote for you favourite. **

**Just another reminder: the Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins. She owns all the characters except those which I create. **

**The Bloodbath**

**Suffra's POV**

For a moment all I could feel and hear was my heart hammering in my chest. I shook myself as the announcement filled the arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let the 68th annual Hunger Games begin!" the announcer said. Sixty seconds. That was how long I had to wait. If I ran prematurely, I would be blown to bits. There were landmines around the starting platforms. There was no screen. I had to count in my head.

60, 59, 58…

The arena was incredibly mountainous. Behind me there was a large cliff, with a vast grassy area about a hundred metres up. A waterfall splurged off the edge, forming a narrow fast flowing stream one and a half metres wide to my right which could be jumped across if completely necessary and resulted in another waterfall just a few metres behind the Cornocopia. As far as I could see, there was a lagoon at the bottom of that waterfall, at the bottom of another large cliff.

The two cliff directions were out. I could never flee those ways and climb fast enough.

41, 40, 39…

To my right over the stream there was a forest area. It looked very thick so it would be hard for me to go that way quickly, but it would also slow down pursuers. All I really had to do was get out of the clearing. In the bloodbath, it was unlikely that the Careers would follow me.

The Careers! Where were they? I was in the middle of a large arc of tributes, alternating between girls and boys. I was directly next to the boy from 12, who did not pose much of a threat, and the boy from 7. I would have to try not to directly cross paths with him. He was closer to the thick forest area.

To my left there was also forest, but the trees were sparser, but both Krystal and Katran were closer to that side. Still, there were more Careers on my other side. I positioned myself to run in that direction.

19, 18, 17…

Supplies. I needed supplies. The main supply of weapons were in the mouth of the Cornocopia, but there were others scattered around. I would probably not be able to get all the way to the mouth to get the better supplies before somebody grabbed a weapon to take me out. I was fast, not a bullet.

14, 13, 12…

I spotted a camouflaged backpack just ten metres from the mouth. If I dodged off sort of diagonal, I would be able to make it straight to the sparser forest in a slight diagonal line. It would leave me close to the cliff but the others were unlikely to follow me.

There was also some food scattered around. If I had time, I would grab some of that on the way.

8, 7, 6…

I prepared myself to run, narrowing my eyes on the backpack. I would have to be first. If I wasn't, I would just have to flee. Once the bloodbath was over I would return for some supplies. If possible. I looked back over at Krystal, not tracing my planned path with my eyes.

4, 3…

Pointing at the Cornocopia I held up two fingers with my other hand, then put both of my hands together in the motion for sleep. I did not focus on her long enough to ask her whether she understood. There was no time.

1…

I braced myself and the gong sounded right on cue. Without looking at any of the others I was off. I grabbed the backpack with both my hands and threw it over my shoulder. Somebody was screaming already, and I ducked just in case that affected me. Somehow my instinct had been right and a knife whizzed above my head. That had been sheer luck, but it overbalanced me. I fell forwards as I was not used to the weight of the pack on me, but I quickly righted myself. I did not stop when I reached the forest. I just kept running.

Only later did it occur to me that this was the first time I had ever seen trees in real life.

**Krystal's POV**

Suffra caught my eye. _Don't pay any attention to her. _She then pointed at the Cornocopia and held up two fingers. Two days? _Don't pay any attention to her. _The motion for sleeping? Two days at night? _Admit it, she still looks sort of like Lacey. _

I growled, reminding myself that I actually was in the Hunger Games now, and I could not screw up. There were a couple of knives just a few metres in front of me. It was almost like the gamemakers wanted me to kill people, take some out in the bloodbath.

The gong sounded. I barely had to move to get the knives, and I scooped them up and suddenly I was filled with rage at Suffra. She distracted me. I should be going for the decent weapons at the Cornocopia instead of just grabbing two lone knives which did not even have a serrated edges.

Holding the knives tightly I aimed one of them at Suffra. Wow, she actually was fast. She'd got close to the Cornocopia and was already fleeing with a pack that no doubt contained something decent. In fury I threw one of the knives at her, but she was too far away for my aim to be accurate. She probably would be fine if she had not ducked.

"Chasing after your little ally, Princess?" Katran mocked. He was holding a long sword and almost casually stabbed the boy from 6 in the stomach when he was trying to run past and get some decent supplies. The morphling victors from District 6 were usually not good at getting their tributes sponsors; he would have needed those supplies.

Much good it did him now. He was gasping for breath, still alive but not going to stay that way for long. For some reason he did not look scared, he just looked at peace as he faded away. I stared at him for valuable seconds before I shook myself out of my stupor.

Ray was midway to joining Katran before she fell forwards, a spear imbedded in her back. Anemone stood behind her, an angry expression on her face. She no longer held any weapons and realized her mistake as Katran charged for her. Garnet blocked off her only other path to safety; the forest. She was stuck between the cliff, the Cornocopia, and the two advancing trained tributes which used to be her allies.

"Nowhere for you to go," Katran sneered. Anemone looked backwards off the cliff, judging the distance and the amount of sharp rocks.

"Not true," was all Anemone said before she launched herself off the cliff. All I could see were her arms wind-milling. I did not know whether she hit the water or how injured she was, but if she stayed conscious, being from District 4 she would have a fighting chance. Katran had obviously come to the same conclusion as he swore.

Suddenly I was thrown backwards and I turned to see Walton behind me. He did not have an axe just yet, which was lucky. All he had was a mace which I was not even sure he knew how to use. He was not that good at it, as he had a great shot and it only skimmed my forearm.

It hurt a lot, but it was nowhere near as bad as some of the injuries I'd got in training before. The only rule: never scar somebody where it could not be easily covered up. The Capitol like pretty tributes.

I screamed at him angrily and threw my knife with my injured arm. My arm did not feel quite like it should and it only hit his shoulder near the base of his neck. He ran, not liking being injured, with my knife still lodged in the wound. I looked around panting, searching for more weapons. There were none in the immediate vicinity, but I saw that the girl from 12 had not moved from her starting platform.

Without thinking I ran to her. She ran as well but did not get far. Even with a week of proper food she still looked sickly and thin.

"P-please," she begged and I punched her hard in the face. Her head snapped backwards as I pushed her down to the ground. She looked so pitiful and I hesitated for a moment. The world seemed to swirl around me as I held her down.

"Sorry," I said, my voice sounding extremely cold. That's not how I had meant for it to sound. It's like I had no more control over myself at all as I did what I had been trained to. I just kept beating that poor girl from 12.

**Dina's POV**

The gong had sounded about thirty seconds ago and again and again I tried to move. Run. Nobody had come for me, which was a miracle. Maybe I had a bit of luck on my side after all. It Mimi that finally pushed me into action. Literally.

"Run!" she hissed, and then she did what she had told me. She was not as fast as she usually was as there was a long bloody gash at the bottom of her leg. I followed her, somehow still slower despite this. Mimi had been right at the end, just two tributes down from me. The boy from 8 was between us and he had gone straight for a bunch of spears in the middle, but the boy from 1 had stabbed him in the back before he could. She probably had not gone far and just hidden, but come back to get me out of my stupid non-moving state.

That had got her injured. She had been injured because of me.

"Is Bert alright?" I asked.

"I watched him before I ran. He was right in the centre, and hid himself in a crag by the cliffs. It isn't safe there but it is safer than having him move," Mimi said. She ushered me along. "Run. I'll find you."

Then she climbed up the tree like a squirrel and I did what I was told. I just ran, tripping over all sorts of plants and tree roots but still going, probably leaving a massive big trail behind me, but it was the best I could do.

**Krystal's POV**

There was blood on my hands, and all over my face and clothes. I kept telling myself to stop until finally I listened, slumping to the side next to the girl from District 12. Was she dead? Apparently I was soft as well. I had no heart to check, and as the fighting was still continuing there was no cannons. There never were until the bloodbath was over.

Almost everybody had fled. The girl from 6 and the boy from 9 were fighting each other without weapons, scratching and biting. Katran was watching them with an amused expression on his face, and I knew he was waiting for one of them to come out victorious before slaughtering the other. No matter who won out of the two of them, neither of them would survive. Perhaps they knew that. Maybe that was why they kept on fighting.

The boy from 5 was in the Cornocopia, probably thinking that nobody could see him. Obviously he was wrong. I got up and stepped towards him, being as quiet as I could. Then I heard a scream. That strange girl from 7 was looking right at me, perched in a tree about twenty feet up. The boy from 5 heard and his neck snapped around.

"Guess who is trapped!" I yelled, pointing at the boy from five as he searched desperately for an escape route. There was none to be found. He had been the unlucky one, chosen to search for supplies for his band of allies big enough to rival this year's pack. They would not be getting them.

I grabbed a machete as I ran, enjoying the feel of it in my hands, stabbing the boy from 5 deep in the heart. He didn't have a moment to react before he slid down the Cornocopia, blood oozing from the wound. The girl from 7 screamed again, and this time it was a scream of pain. She didn't stop, even when Katran ran to the tree. There was no way to get up to her, but I doubted it mattered because she was going completely hysterical.

Spinning back around again I saw that the girl from 6 and the boy from 9 lay dead, and Spear held a bloody sword in his hands.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "Final two of the bloodbath. It's better if I did this instead of Katran."

Because with the way Katran was yelling at the girl from 7 now, I guessed that if it was left up to him he might have tortured the two of them to death. Final two of the bloodbath. There was no further need to do it quickly.

That was when the cannons fired. I counted. _One… two… three… _all the way up to eight. That was slightly less than average, but I saw nine bodies lying in the ground around us. Pulling my machete back out of the boy from 5, I walked over to the girl from 12. I had to check, and when I saw her I dropped to my knees.

She was still alive, only just. I stabbed her in the chest, feeling completely numb, the bracelet seeming to burn a hole in my arm although I knew that it was just my injury from Walton. The cannon fired once more.


	11. Supplies

**A/N: C'mon, I would really like some more reviews here. I have literally two people following this so far and one of them is my brother (who, by the way, is constantly bugging me to update this which I why you are receiving a lot of chapters very quickly at the moment). I usually only write one story at a time, and at this stage I would much rather write my own story instead of some fan fic on a fan fiction site. This said, I will not post another chapter until I have on average at least one review per chapter: so basically 11 reviews in total. That does not seem too excessive. **

**Have fun reading this anyway. If you want to see more, please review. **

**Supplies**

**Krystal's POV**

Katran still guarded the tree the girl from 7 had climbed, but the rest of us had gathered around taking in the supplies and 'finalizing' this temporary alliance of ours. Garnet was bragging about his one kill, the boy from 8. Spear was quieter, which suited me just fine. I stood there, staring blankly forwards having lost any will to move or take part in their goading.

"We should clear out so they can take the bodies," Spear said eventually. I saw him peering over the side of the cliff where his district partner had jumped. Maybe he was wondering whether we would hear the cannon soon, as nobody could survive a fall like that without some serious injuries.

"Yeah," I heard myself say numbly. I walked to the river and washed my hands, scratching myself until I felt like the blood was off the surface. It did not help, and my hands still felt dirty. No matter how hard I rubbed the blood would not come out of my clothes either, and these were the only ones I had. Not that I deserved any less.

"No way," Katran yelled over. "Let's have a look at the spoils first."

"Okay," I said. _Get a hold of yourself Krystal, _I mentally yelled at myself, trying to blink out of this hollow state I was currently in. There were a lot of weapons as about two-thirds of the total weapons had survived the bloodbath untouched. Large packs contained tents, and there was a good supply of food, mainly dried, that would easily last us the duration of the games.

I looked around, choosing a medium sized brown backpack and emptying it roughly over the ground. My allies were not to be trusted so I had to be ready to leave at any moment, even in early stages like this. _Checklist: food, water, first aid kit, weapons, night vision goggles, sleeping bag_… I made a list in my head, figuring out what I actually would need to survive. The obvious things had been drilled into me enough. Lacey, when she was actually on my side, always said to bring at least two days' worth of food anywhere, as if I wouldn't have any sponsors to bail me out if I completely screwed up on that front.

With a pang I wondered what Lacey would have thought of the bloodbath. This time there was no numbness as I fell to my knees, grasping the ground to steady myself. It was all I could do not to start crying for the first time since I was a small child, and I bit my lip in frustration. _Get a grip. There are 14 tributes remaining for you to take out. _

Slowly I opened up a first aid kit and treated the wound on my arm, wrapping it up tightly so it would not get infected. I collected myself some food, and filled three full water bottles in a stream, before picking up a selection of small knives to store on the outside of my pack. Then I considered packing a tent, but there would be little use for one on uneven ground. A sleeping bag would simply have to do. With an afterthought, I pushed the first aid kit on top, adding extra bandages and disinfectant, plus iodine to filter the water in the future.

"Should we really leave everything out for those lesser districts to get?" Spear asked. We were going to go hunting whilst the Capitol cleared the bodies away, which meant there would not be anybody there to remain as a guard.

"Nah, they'd all be running in fear," Katran said, finally joining us. The moment he moved the girl from 7 scampered down the tree and ran off. Katran grabbed a weapon, before charging after her. "Let's get her."

Garnet followed him, and Spear and I exchanged a glance. I found myself a new machete as I could not bear to look at the one that was covered in blood, then followed the two of them trailing that girl from 7. She was fast, darting through the forest like she belonged there, but her injured leg was slowing her down.

And then she was gone. She had probably done a double take somewhere, as if she already knew this forest although only being here for just over an hour. I ducked under another vine, calling to her randomly. She did not respond.

"Here District 7, District 7, District 7," Garnet taunted along with me, and started laughing. There were a lot of hovercrafts over the Cornocopia now, reaching down with metal claws to collect the fallen. Somebody should really go back and guard the supplies, but we were more likely to find other tributes now before they got more spaced out.

"Have you ever heard of stalking," I hissed at him, despite the fact that I had been the first one to call out. "There could be others about."

"Let's split up, okay," Spear said. "In twos."

"I could easily beat anybody by myself," Katran said cockily.

"So could I," Garnet agreed, pointing his long sword at us as if to prove a point.

"You go with Katran," I said. Tactics: if Garnet was to be taken out soon, I'd rather that he was with Katran than with me.

"Don't kill each other," Spear called mockingly, before ducking through another intersection in the forest and I had to run to catch up with him.

"Who's betting that we will hear a cannon round about now?" I asked, motioning to the area where Garnet and Katran still were. We both waited for about ten seconds, then I started laughing. "Well, they obviously have not found that girl from 7 that they were looking for."

"She shouldn't be too hard to find, she was hysterical the last time we saw her," Spear said.

"Not when she was running," I pointed out, trying to think about that part instead. I was not going to think about the bloodbath, or even try to remember it. The best thing to do would to keep on hunting to get my mind off it.

Then I heard a low shriek, and before I even thought of it I had my weapon readied for attack.

**Suffra's POV**

I'd forced myself to stop running when I got about half a kilometre into the forest. This was a dangerous place, I knew, but there was no reason to separate myself too far from the Cornocopia when I already knew that I would be returning. Instead I stopped, and forcing myself to look through what I had acquired inside the backpack.

The first thing that caught my eye was food. There was actually warm bread, fresh from the Capitol which would go off soon so I decided I would eat that first. Then there was a selection of dried meats, fruit, and crackers that would last me a while. I also found two empty water bottles, some iodine for purifying, a palm-sized tub of what I assumed to be a sort of medicine, and a long coil of wire. There was nothing to cut the wire with because I had not been provided with a knife or scissors.

At the bottom I found a second jacket and a box of matches. _There will definitely be some cold nights. _In order to make use of the wire I had to somehow find myself a knife. That was the moment I heard the initial cannons go off. Eight in total, then a several second pause before a ninth one went off.

The bloodbath must finally have been over. The Careers would have to clear out so they could come and collect all of the bodies, so that would be the opportune time to sneak back and get some supplies. I ran again, trying hard to make as little noise as possible as I made my way back to the Cornocopia and stopping just behind a treeline.

They were engrossed with going hunting and arguing with each other so they did not even look in my direction. I was relieved by that as I was not completely certain about my camouflage abilities. I was about to run when I saw somebody else do the same.

The little boy from 3 had obviously hidden in a crag and had picked this as the time to escape. He ran quickly in a half crouched position, revealing to me that there was a small pathway behind the waterfall that made the stream crossable without jumping it. He was smart, as that was actually a good tactic. Even though he probably posed no threat to me I waited until he too had gone before I risked going into the open.

When I saw the bodies up close I gasped. _Welcome to the Hunger Games, for real this time, _part of my mind told me. _It's not just running. You have to do this to at least one other person. _

I pushed those thoughts out of my mind. Close to the mouth of the Cornocopia I saw Stitch lying dead on the ground near the weapons. He had clearly been trying to reach the spears but had been stabbed in the back. My eyes brimmed with tears I refused to let fall.

_Leave no trails, _I told myself. My pack was not completely full, so I grabbed some extra food and two serrated knives of different lengths. Then I ran to the stream, coming across the body of the girl from District 2, and filled up both of my water bottles.

_Now go,_ I thought as I ran for cover once more. My mind whirled around in circles but I decided to ignore it; at least until I'd managed to get somewhere safe. _There isn't anywhere safe in the arena. _Just as I'd made it to the treeline Katran and Garnet burst back into the clearing.

"She must be here somewhere. She double-backed," Garnet yelled angrily. I doubted anybody would be stupid enough to double-back all the way to the Cornocopia when chased by Careers, and Katran actually seemed to agree with me.

"I doubt District 7 is stupid enough to come back here. It's your fault. You missed her!" Katran yelled back. "We could have found somebody decent by now, instead of just taking out this stupid girl who does not even want to win!"

"She wants to win," Garnet said. "Nobody doesn't."

"Well, when we catch her she'll find out the true cost of not winning," Katran threatened into the air, with only the birds and me here to hear them. I shuddered when I realized he was talking about torture. They were loud enough that even though I was hidden behind a few layers of trees I could easily hear everything they were saying. Sticking close to the Cornocopia would be dangerous but I would be able to find out valuable information. That was when I realized I already had valuable information.

Even though there had been no additional cannons, two out of the five had returned. Wait, there would be _four. _Katran had announced on live TV that Anemone was out of the alliance, and as Ray was dead they were down by half – Krystal and Spear.

Did they taken each other out already or did they just split up to search for tributes already? They were arguing anyway, they had been even in training and the interviews. Their alliance was an uneasy one, and the more the argued the less likely they were to find the other tributes. Soon there would only be three Career tributes as Garnet would be killed soon by some Capitol means.

For now, that was all I needed. Looking back once more I hitched my pack up over my shoulders and ran again. Slower this time. The familiar pangs of hunger in my stomach had started up again but I had been far hungrier than this before. I would wait until the fallen showed up in the sky before I started eating the previously warm bread.

**Dina's POV**

"Mimi!" I called silently. I had been waiting alone for hours, and could not help worry that one of the nine cannons I'd heard had been for her. And where was Bert? I was not sure how far I had gone, but I would surely be found soon if I did not go on.

Our alliance was just so spread out. Gregor should have been back by now with supplies. I could not live off nothing. Glancing in front of me now I had absolutely no idea whether the clear berries hanging from this tree were edible or not. How about the fungi on the ground? Why had the edible plants station not covered fungi, not that I would have been able to remember the difference even if it had done?

This forest was so thick. Even I had lost my own trail, as impossible as that might sound, and every direction just seemed to be filled with endless trees. Where was the Cornocopia? I did not want to be anywhere near it, but a general direction would assist with orientation.

Tripping over a tree root after ducking under a vine, I let out another small shriek. Nobody would probably hear me as the chances were there was nobody in the immediate vicinity. That was quickly disproven when I heard people thundering towards me.

I screamed, which really did not help matters, before I started running. Somehow I managed to trip over the same tree root again and I just scampered backwards on my hands and bottom. I became tangled in a web of other vines, whimpering to myself silently when the girl from 1 and the boy from 4 found me.

"Don't you know, mountain lions will come out and eat you if you aren't careful," the boy from 4 said, smirking in a way that suggested he was just toying with me.

"Oh Spear, I doubt that she'd have to worry much about mountain lions," the girl from 1 mocked, twirling her machete just enough to emphasize the fact that she held a deadly weapon. _Several _deadly weapons, I corrected, as I noticed that she had knives attached to her backpack. I let out a small cry of fear. "_Us, _on the other hand, rather more so."

"P-please…" I whimpered in fear. I saw the girl from 1 stiffen, and she seemed faraway for a moment. Maybe she was contemplating letting me go. I really hoped that was the case. "Please d-don't kill me."

"Well, there will be no use hunting her down twice," Spear said, just falling short of the cold tone he was sure to have been aiming for. I tried to shuffle backwards but the girl from 1 moved to hold me from behind, wrapping one arm around my neck and the other around my chest. I tried to struggle but it was hopeless. I saw a bandage on her arm which was just about close enough for me to reach so in a last ditch attempt I bit down on it as hard as I could. She let out a hiss between her teeth and slammed me hard enough in the side of the head that I collapsed to the ground and saw stars.

When I managed to focus on my surroundings again I felt my cheek pressed against one of those foreign mushrooms and the world seemed sideways. Spear was holding the girl from 1 back, getting out his own weapon.

"Krystal, you are not going to try to beat somebody to death for the second time in this arena," Spear said, talking to her gently. I thought for a moment that she was going to turn on him but instead she just seemed to deflate. Spear poised his own weapon ready for use, and I gasped when I felt the spear enter my ribs. My body convulsed and I began coughing up blood. The world seemed to darken and I screamed loudly.

"I don't want to die," I sobbed. There was another rough jerk when the boy from 4 jerked his spear out of my body again, and impossible pain filled me. The world was so close to black now that I could feel almost nothing. Even the pain was dulling.

"B-bye Mark," I said, though I was not sure whether the word managed to come out at all. "Bye D-dad." Then darkness.

**Secondary A/N: Nobody seems to have shown preference for Dina, and it seemed logical to get rid of her here. Now we are down to just two characters narrating. Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favour. **


	12. Two Girls

**A/N: We finally got there, and I was away on holiday for a week. There aren't that many people reading this story and I would really like more. Ideally I would like some follows and favourites as well, but at this stage I cannot really afford to be picky. Two more reviews before I post another chapter. Either way, for this chapter we are down to:**

**Two (Narrating) Girls**

**Krystal's POV**

I stared at the girl from 3's body for a moment, the cannon still ringing in my ears I turned around and punched Spear in the face. He was not expecting it, as apparently he had been stupid enough to trust one of his allies, and fell to the ground backwards before jumping up again.

"Why did you do that Krystal?!" Spear yelled, readying his weapon as if we were going to have a proper fight here and now. If that was to happen, I was completely certain about my victory. In a thick forest, machetes were far more useful than spears.

"I was about to ask you the same!" I shouted at him. "I had everything under control! Why did you hold me back?"

"Are you saying that you _really _wanted to kill her?!" Spear asked, no quieter. I commented on this rather than his actual question.

"Look; you are scaring away the other tributes. We are not going to find anybody else today thanks to you," I accused.

"See you back at the Cornocopia," Spear said coldly, no longer bothering with me. I glared at him, waiting until he was out of my frame of vision before slumping down one of the trees and sliding until I reached the ground.

_What is with him? _I wondered absentmindedly, then decided for myself quickly. He was trying to steal sponsors because he did not have any actual merits. Somehow he'd got a 9 in training, and although he could obviously use some weapons I was not quite sure which ones they were. Having a high kill-count increased the chances of sponsors.

That was when I realized that I probably had to move away from that girl from 3's body before the gamemakers sent in some 'incentive' to clear me away. My arm pained when I used it to pull myself up and I noticed that it had started bleeding again.

The Cornocopia was not that far away, when you got through the tangles of vines to find a clear path again. The gamemakers were almost making this too easy. It was like they wanted me to win. About fifteen minutes later of casual meandering I was at the stream again, which I leapt across without thinking before going to the Cornocopia.

"Took you long enough," Katran sneered. "Even your boyfriend outran you Princess."

"Shut up," I growled, even though I had not been running at all. "We caught up with the girl from 3. What did you manage to do other than argue with each other and scare away tributes?"

"_Spear _killed that stupid girl from 3, who would not have lasted the day anyway because she probably poisoned herself. Her ally from 5 is dead, that idiot from 7 is injured, and she has absolutely none of her own skills," Katran challenged. "That's like pushing one of those loose rocks of the cliff."

"Anybody could do it," Garnet put in pointlessly, although Katran had already made that clear enough.

"Obviously," Katran sneered. "So you did no better than we did."

"If we want to get sponsors we should at least start acting like allies," Spear said.

"Good for you, you managed to be the voice of reason amongst a group of people who cannot see reason," I mocked Spear. "Is that what you were trained for? There seems to be little else you are good at!"

"Just because I am not a sadist doesn't mean I am not skilled!" Spear yelled. I really felt like punching him again. "I don't know what you are either. You are strong but you are weak."

"How am I weak?!" I challenged. _You are meant to be above this. You aren't meant to feel anything, _I managed to answer myself.

"Well, you spent half an hour after the end of the bloodbath staring into space before you even looked at any of the supplies," Spear said.

"Quit exaggerating," I glared at him. "As if you didn't basically do the same. What is going on between you and Anemone?"

"Nothing!" Spear shouted.

"As if we would really believe _that_!" I yelled.

"Let's face it, I'm not the only one who has basically lost their district partner. You have as well," Spear said.

"Hey, I'm still alive here," Garnet frowned, annoyed with us. This went on for a little while longer, until _Katran _actually got annoyed and pointed his weapon at us.

"If you don't shut up now I will kill all of you!" he threatened. I raised my own weapon at him, then dropped it because for now I actually did need the allies. "Good. You know that you cannot beat me. Don't try and go against me. Use me as a ticket to the final five if you must but after that I will be coming for you."

"Cocky bastard," I cursed at him. He glared at me before shoving me roughly to the ground. I jumped back up again, raising my machete and not letting it drop this time. Sun glinted off the blade as I readied myself for attack.

"Both of you stop fighting!" Spear yelled.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want the only girl in the alliance to be killed yet," Garnet said and I glared at him.

"I could beat Katran!" I argued, staring him down with complete confidence.

**Suffra's POV**

All of the Careers were together and arguing. Their voices drifted over the trees and I could hear them even when I distanced myself. I was now at the foot of the cliff, looking upwards trying to think my way up. Even the easiest route I found was a lot harder than the ones on the climbing wall at the training centre.

As far as I could tell the arena was on three levels. One was about a hundred feet beneath the Cornocopia, which seemed to be a very watery area. Above there was a grassy area but I assumed that the arena would be far vaster than this. It seemed that this level was actually relatively narrow, but I had no idea how long it was. It could be endless or get wider along the cliff-face, but I would not be checking it. Before long I gave up on this particular location and moved along a little bit, looking for a deep cave to hide in.

The sun was still in the sky, but it was gradually dimming. I would have to find a suitable place before dark. When I realized my key mistake I felt dread fill me. I did not have just the Careers to worry about but the other tributes as well. If I ran into Walton or somebody he would probably kill me. The others probably weren't any better. Just because I knew where the Careers, with the exception of Anemone, were did not mean I could let my guard down.

I crept after that, making sure not to step on any twigs that seemed likely to snap. The sky made me nervous as it dropped from a shade of grey right to actual blackness suddenly with the temperature dropping to almost freezing and I still had not found a suitable cave.

_You have to climb a tree, _I thought as the anthem started playing in the sky and the pictures of the fallen were shown. A lump formed in my throat as I remembered that Stitch would be up there amongst them.

First up was the girl from 2. I would have been surprised if I had not seen it myself. Using the light from the screen in the sky I climbed a tree slowly and carefully, hiding my backpack on a low branch but taking my water, the wire, a knife and my second coat with me. I would eat the bread tomorrow when I would need the energy to move around. My climb was uneasy and unsteady but I managed to get about twenty feet in the air when I found a suitable branch and refused to trust my questionable climbing ability any further in the almost pitch black darkness.

I cut some of the wire off and tied myself to the branch. If I fell it would cut into my skin but I would not die.

Having also kept a rough eye on the screen I knew who the fallen were. That poor girl from 3 had not made it through the first day, nor that the boy from 5. Both from 6 were dead, and then Stitch's face illuminated the sky. The boy from 9, the boy from 10, then both from 12. That totalled the ten cannons which I had heard.

Then the Capitol seal remained for a moment, before fading into darkness. I wrapped my second coat around me, sipping water gradually before tucking it along with the remaining coil of wire into my pocket. Then I tried to sleep. Even though I was on hard bark in an unfamiliar and dangerous environment I fell into a light and dreamless sleep almost immediately.

**Krystal's POV**

My hands were trembling really hard so I found a pair of gloves and slipped them on. I was sitting on the ground just beneath the Cornocopia, my supplies sitting next to me. One of my arms was wrapped around them almost protectively.

"Due to our highly diminished alliance we have enough night vision glasses to cover each of us one and a half times," Spear counted, and I realized I had forgotten to pack those into my backpack earlier.

"So they provided us with six?" I asked, doing the simple maths in my head. "I doubt that is a coincidence. They want their bloody deaths."

"Speaking of which: let's go out hunting!" Katran ordered. He tossed me and Garnet a pair of night vision glasses each and grabbed his weapons. Spear popped a pair on and waited. "Yes that's right, District 4 can guard the supplies."

I pulled my backpack up, securing my knives although I doubted I had enough feeling in my fingers to use them accurately. My finally re-bandaged arm still throbbed although it had been a while since I had put any stress on it, apart from holding and using weapons. It did not take me long to figure out that my glasses also had an infra-red function, which only showed that there were no tributes except us in the immediate area. There was one small animal, perhaps a badger, curled up in the outskirts of the sparser forest. Obviously I preferred this function.

"I'm going this way this time," I said, not wanting to risk the thick forest at night as I would probably get lost night vision goggles or not.

"Well, I'm not going with you. You're an idiot," Garnet said. _Says the guy who is going to get himself killed. _

"Let's stick close to the cliff," Katran said. He meant the ascending cliff that went upwards. Garnet agreed with him, making it far too easy for the gamemakers to cause some sort of landslide and take him out of the game quickly.

"Yeah, why don't you two go that way?" I suggested. "I'll hunt… something… this way."

"I would question what you were doing if I cared about you enough as an ally or saw you as much of a threat," Katran said harshly, and I glared at him.

"Good for you. I don't like you much either," I growled, separating off from two boys. Apart from the fact that I was in an arena with thirteen other people that wanted to kill me, it was a lot more peaceful without the ones which were apparently meant to be my allies. Maybe if I got rid of the competition quickly, I would not be in the arena long enough to give in to the vulnerability of sleep.

They were making this easy for me, all but trapping us on one layer. Anemone was done for, and most likely stuck on the level below me, but other than that we were all together. Half of the remaining tributes had probably escaped in the other direction, which meant there was a large chance of catching a few tonight.

With the infrared, it was almost too easy. I spotted a tribute curled up on the ground – seriously, _the ground_, were they trying to get killed or something? – and crept up until I was just behind the sleeping form. It was almost too easy. Closer inspection made me notice that it was a girl, and I nudged her with the bottom of my boot. She awoke slowly, moaning but not seeming to notice my presence.

"You didn't make it that far into the forest, you are as bad as that girl from 3," I mocked her. "If you want to sleep, why don't you hide?"

"District 2?" she guessed, which annoyed me. For some reason she was not trying to escape and simply sounded _weak_.

"District _1_," I corrected. "Do I sound like District 2 to you? There is only the guy left – the girl managed to get herself killed in the bloodbath with District 12."

"I guess they are losing sponsors," the girl murmured. Usually this happened within the first day of the games. There were always some idiots that managed to survive the bloodbath, and they were gradually hunted down before the real action could begin. Ironically, that action was stretched out over weeks instead of just one day.

"And _you _are meant to be scared," I growled at her. I turned the infrared back off again so I could see things in normal night vision. She did not even flinch, so I kicked her. She was covered in a sticky black substance, which was how blood looked in the dark. I looked around once more to see whether there was anybody else approaching before stabbing a knife into her shoulder and dragging the blade, opening up a long diagonal gash. The girl moaned again, and the cannon fired before I even delivered the death blow.

**Suffra's POV**

I awoke to the sound of a cannon and I almost fell off the branch in shock. It took me a moment to remember where I was and I forced myself to remain quiet. I squinted, seeing the tell-tale shadowed silhouette come and pluck the body off the ground. Taking a wild guess, I bet some Careers were responsible for that. _That means I'm safe for now, _I decided, pretty confident with my assessment.

That was until I heard two of them arguing and coming in my general direction. I remained motionless to see if they would not pass me. Just as their voices grew louder and louder a loud crack emanated from the upper regions of the cliff. Huge rocks bounced down the cliff, flattening trees and cutting the voices off.

I did not have time to plan as I cut myself free with a single jerk of the knife and slid down the tree. The bark cut into my arms deeply and I had just enough time to grab my pack. Vaguely I was aware that I lost the knife before I ran off again, delving deeper into the forest.

_What is this?! _The gamemakers usually only intervened when the tributes were too far apart. Two of the Careers had obviously been closing in on me. In Capitol terms, it would be excitement. They would be betting whether they would see me, whether I would escape or whether they would torture me to death.

The rock-fall had basically separated me from them. Then I understood. The rocks had not meant to kill me, although it had slightly decreased my supplies. This was where Garnet, the boy from 1, would pay for going against the Capitol.

A cannon fired, the second one that had done so in the last couple of minutes, echoing my thoughts exactly. I would bet that later today, as it was bound to be past midnight now, I would see the boy from 1's face in the sky.

**Secondary A/N: Somehow I don't think the girl Krystal found wasn't just 'sleeping'. Like I said before, two more reviews and I will post another chapter. XD**


End file.
